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AN  AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 


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AN 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 


BY 


HERBERT    SPENCER 


VOL.  II. 


WILLIAMS    AND    NORGATE 

14  Henrietta  Street,  Covent  Garden,  London 

1904 

l^All  Bights  Beserved.^ 


s 

1/  v^ 


nARRISON    A^fD   SON8, 

PEINTEBS   IN   ORDINARY   TO   1118  MAJBSTT. 

ST.    martin's   LANG.    W.C. 


NOTE. 


When,  in  1886,  my  health,  failing  for  some  years  before, 
became  such  that  work  involving  any  mental  strain  proved 
impracticable  ;  and  when,  to  partially  fill  the  hours  otherwise 
wholly  vacant,  a  small  amount  of  occupation  appeared 
desirable  ;  I  bethought  me  of  certain  biographical  memoranda 
set  down  in  previous  years,  and  gradually  fell  into  the  habit 
of  passing  a  Httle  time  daily  in  putting  these  into  shape. 

Where  to  begin  was  a  question  which  presented  itself. 
Thinking  it  probable  that  I  should  not  survive  to  write  the 
whole,  I  decided  to  write  first  the  portions  of  chief  importance. 
Though  some  incidents  of  the  years  passed  as  a  civil  engineer 
might  not  prove  wholly  uninteresting,  yet,  manifestly,  the 
chief  interest  felt,  whatever  it  may  amount  to,  in  an  account 
of  my  life  must  centre  in  that  part  of  it  which  narrates  my 
career  as  an  author.  Hence,  after  the  division  devoted  to 
early  life  and  education,  I  passed  at  once  to  later  divisions 
in  the  order  of  their  relative  importance  :  first  Part  VIII 
then  Parts  VI  and  VII  and  then  Parts  IX,  X,  XI  and  XII. 

As  the  volume  advanced  I  became  conscious  that  a  con- 
stitutional lack  of  reticence  is  displayed  throughout  it,  to  an 
extent  which  renders  present  publication  undesirable.  In 
years  to  come,  when  I  shall  be  no  longer  conscious,  the  frank- 
ness with  which  the  book  is  written  may  add  to  whatever 
value  it  has ;   but  while  I  am  alive  it  would,  I  think,  be  out 


vi  NOTE. 

of  taste  to  address  the  public  as  though  it  consisted  of  personal 
friends. 

Meanwhile,  for  the  use  of  personal  friends,  or  such  of  them 
as  care  to  read  it,  I  have  had  the  volumes  printed.  To  take 
a  finished  impression  from  the  stereo-plates  was  needful  as 
a  precaution,  since  a  fire  at  the  printers  would,  otherwise, 
leave  me  without  a  copy  containing  the  final  corrections. 
Instead  of  taking  one  impression,  I  decided  to  take  half-a-dozen, 
so  that  a  select  few  might  see  the  book  if  they  -wished. 

It  is  a  provoking  necessity  that  an  autobiography  should 
be  egotistic.  A  biography  is  inevitably  defective  as  lacking 
facts  of  importance,  and  still  more  as  giving  imperfect  or 
untrue  interpretations  of  those  facts  which  it  contains  ;  and 
an  autobiography,  by  exhibiting  its  writer  as  continually 
talking  about  himself,  is  defective  as  making  very  salient  a 
trait  which  may  not  perhaps  be  stronger  than  usual.  The 
reader  has  to  discount  the  impression  produced  as  well  as  he 
can. 

H.  S. 


CONTENTS   OF  VOL.   11. 


CHAP.  PART    VIII.  PAGE 

XXXIV.— A  System  of  Philosophy  Projected  . .       3 

XXXV.— Plans  for  Executing  it  ..  ..27 

XXXVL— A  Plan  Fixed  upon   ..  ..  ..48 


PART  IX. 

XXXVII.— Writing  First  Principles 
XXXVIII. — An  Autumn's  Relaxations 
XXXIX.— A  Volume  of  Bidogy. . 
XL. — A  Digression 
XLI. — Another  Volume  of  Biology 
XLII. — Impending  Cessation 
XLIIL— Sad  Events.. 


59 
77 
86 
106 
113 
132 
138 


PART  X. 

XLIV. — Re-casting  First  Principles  . .  . .  153 

XLV. — An  Imprudence  and  its  Consequences   . .   171 

XLVL— A  Tour  in  Italy         ..  ..  ..178 

XLVII. — Developing  the  Psychology  . .  . .   199 

XLVIII.— Finishing  the  Psi/cAo%?/  ..  ..  223 

XLIX.— An  Extra  Book          ..  ..  ..242 

L. — Some  Minor  Incidents  . .  . .  256 

LI. — The  Descriptive  Sociology  . .  , ,  261 


viii  CONTENTS. 

PART  XI. 

CHAP.  PAGE 

LII. — A  Retrospective  Glance 
LIII.— Vol.  I  of  The  Sociology 
LIV. — A  Series  of  Articles   . . 

LV.— The  Data  of  Ethics     . . 
LVI. — Ceremonial  Institutions 


PART  XII. 


273 
276 
301 
314 
324 


LVII.— Up  the  Nile 

..  333 

LVIII. — Ending  of  Descriptive  Sociology 

..  348 

LIX. — Political  InstittUions  . . 

..  353 

LX. — A  Grievous  Mistake  . . 

..  375 

LXI. — Coming  Events 

..  383 

LXII. — A  Visit  to  America    . . 

..  387 

LXIII. — Conclusion  . . 

..  410 

PART  XIII. 
LXIV. — Reflections  (written  four  years  later)     . .  417 

APPENDICES  TO  VOL.  II. 

A  note.  Concerning  Professor  Huxley's  criticisms  of 
Spencer's  writings  . .  . .  . .  . .  475 

Appendix  A. — A  System  of  Philosophy.     Reprint  of  the 

Programme  issued  in  1860  . .  479 

Appendix  B. — Letter  to  G.  H.  Lewes  . .  . .  485 

Appendix  C. — Documents  concerning  the  Intended 
Cessation  of  the  Issue  of  the  Syn- 
thetic Philosophy,  and  the  Measures 
taken  to  prevent  it  . .  . .  491 

Appendix  D. — A  New  InvaUd  Bed. .  . .  . .  494 


CONTENTS.  ix 

PAGE 

Appendix  E. — A    Letter    concerning    the    Feeling    in 
England  at  the  time  when  there  began 
the  War  between  North  and  South  . .  497 
Appendix  F. — A  New  Fishing  Rod  Joint      . .  . .  504 

Appendix  G.— Obituary  Notice  of  J.  S.  Mill. .  . .  506 

Appendix  H. — Herbert  Spencer  and  his  American 
Friends.  A  Letter  pubUshed  by  Pro- 
fessor Youmans   . .  . .  . .  509 


LIST  OF  THE  UJLUSTRATIONS  TO  VOL.  II. 

Herbert  Spencer  when  78 . .  . .  . .        Frontispiece 

A  New  InvaUd  Bed  . .  . .  to  face  page  496 

A  New  Fishing  Rod  Joint  . .  . .  ...   505 


PAET    VIII 


CHAPTEE  XXXIV. 
A  SYSTEM  PEOJECTED. 
1857—8.    ^t.  37—38. 

My  searcTi  for  a  fit  place  of  abode  wlieii  I  returned  to 
towiij  ended  satisfactorily.  Malvern  House,  otherwise  13, 
Loudoun  Eoad,  St  Jolin's  Wood,  in  wHcli  I  settled  myself, 
is  a  good  house  seated  in  the  midst  of  a  garden  walled 
round.  The  occupier,  who  carried  on  a  wholesale  business 
in  the  city,  and  who,  as  I  afterward  learnt,  feared  to  fall 
into  a  state  of  chronic  melancholy,  as  his  father  had  done 
before  him,  had  hit  on  a  prophylactic — surrounding  himself 
with  a  lively  circle.  In  addition  to  the  family,  consisting 
of  host  and  hostess,  three  daughters  and  a  son,  ranging 
from  seven  up  to  about  twenty,  and  a  governess,  there 
were  as  boarders  an  old  retired  government  ofiicial  (a 
commissioner  of  some  kind  I  think  he  had  been)  lively 
notwithstanding  his  years — eighty  and  a  wit;  a  '^grass- 
widow,"  pleasant  to  look  upon  but  without  an  idea  in  her 
head,  whose  husband  was  in  India ;  and  her  friend,  a  vain 
old  lady  who  played  the  part  of  duenna. 

Beyond  the  fitness  of  the  circle  and  the  salubrity  of  the 
locality,  which  is  on  the  backbone  of  St.  John's  Wood,  the 
place  had  the  advantage  that  it  was  within  two  minutes' 
walk  of  No.  1,  Waverley  Place,  then  occupied  by  Huxley. 
We  had  a  standing  engagement  for  Sunday  afternoons  : 
a  walk  of  a  few  miles  into  the  country  along  the  Finchley 
Eoad.,  or  up  to  Hampstead,  being  the  usual  routine.  Many 
pleasant  talks  and  useful  discussions  there  were  between  ua 

1* 


i  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  [1857. 

on  those  occasions  during  the  succeeding  year.  I  remem- 
ber that  once  when,  as  it  would  seem,  society  and  human 
life  as  at  present  existing  had  been  topics  of  somewhat 
pessimistic  comment,  I  said  (not  however  doing  justice  to 
my  thought) — "Yes,  one  cannot  hope  for  much  more  than 
to  make  one's  mark  and  die."  Whereupon  Huxley,  with 
greater  self-abnegation,  responded — "Never  mind  about 
the  mark  :  it  is  enough  if  one  can  give  a  push." 

Reference  to  these  walks  and  talks  reminds  me  of  an 
incident  connected  with  one  of  them.  Shortly  after  I  had 
established  myself  in  Loudoun  Road,  Buckle  called.  It  was 
on  a  Sunday  afternoon.  Our  conversation  had  not  gone 
far  when  I  intimated  that  the  hour  had  come  for  the  usual 
excursion;  and,  on  my  answering  his  inquiry  who  Huxley  was 
(for  then  he  was  not  widely  known).  Buckle  agreed  to 
go  with  me  to  be  introduced.  He  went  with  us  a  short 
distance  up  the  Finchley  Road ;  but,  saying  that  lie  had  an 
engagement,  presently  turned  back.  We  looked  after  him 
as  he  walked  away;  and  Huxley,  struck  by  his  feeble, 
undecided  gait,  remarked — "  Ah,  I  see  the  kind  of  man. 
He  is  top-heavy."  I  have  never  done  more  than  dip  into 
The  History  of  Civilization  in  England  ;  but  I  suspect  that 
the  analogy  suggested  was  not  without  truth.  Buckle  had 
taken  in  a  much  larger  quantity  of  matter  than  he  could 
organize ;  and  he  staggered  under  the  mass  of  it. 

November  was  occupied  chiefly  in  seeing  through  the 
press  the  volume  of  Essays :  Scientific,  Political,  and 
Speculative;  but  its  last  days,  joined  with  the  first  part 
of  December,  found  me  busy  with  a  review-article.  A  letter 
to  my  father  dated  28th  November,  contains  the  paragraph — 

♦'  I  have  undertaken  to  write  a  short  article  on  this  Banking  crisis — perhaps 
nnder  the  title  of  the  bunglings  of  State-banking — in  which  I  propose  showing 
the  evils  of  meddling  and  the  superiorities  of  an  unrestricted  system.  It  is 
for  the  next  Westminster." 

This   essay,   which   appeared   under  the  title  of   "  State 


^T.  37.]  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  6 

Tamperlngs  with  Money  and  Banks,"  displayed  once  more 
my  antagonism  to  over-legislation.  It  is  significant,  too, 
as  showing  in  another  direction,  an  abiding  faith  in  the 
self-regulation  of  internal  social  activities. 

An  essay  on  such  a  subject  seems  a  very  unlikely  place 
in  which  to  meet  with  a  biological  doctrine ;  and  yet  one 
cropped  up.  Among  reasons  given  for  reprobating  the 
pohcy  of  guarding  imprudent  people  against  the  dangers 
of  reckless  banking,  one  was  that  such  a  policy  interferes 
with  that  normal  process  which  brings  benefit  to  the 
sagacious  and  disaster  to  the  stupid.  "  The  ultimate  result 
of  shielding  men  from  the  effects  of  folly,  is  to  fill  the 
world  with  fools,"  was  a  belief  expressed.  This  was  a  tacit 
assertion,  recalling  like  assertions  previously  made,  that 
the  survival  of  the  fittest  operates  beneficially  in  society. 
It  appears  that  in  the  treatment  of  every  topic,  however 
seemingly  remote  from  philosophy,  I  found  occasion  for 
falling  back  on  some  ultimate  principle  in  the  natural  order. 

But  now  I  come  to  an  event  of  much  moment — an  event 
which  initiated  a  long  series  of  changes  and  determined 
my  subsequent  career. 

Already  I  have,  when  speaking  of  each  essay  or  book 
from  time  to  time  written,  indicated  the  way  in  which  it 
stood  related  to  the  general  doctrine  elaborated  in  after 
years.  Here,  to  exhibit  more  clearly  the  attitude  of  mind 
and  stage  of  thought  which  had  been  reached,  it  will  be 
well  briefly  to  recapitulate  in  immediate  succession  the 
implied  steps  of  mental  development.  y 

In  the  narrative  of  my  boyhood  I  pointed  out  that  I 
learly  became  possessed  by  the  idea  of  causationT)  My 
father's  frequent  questions — "  Can  you  tell  me  the  cause  of 
this  ?  "  or — "  I  wonder  what  is  the  cause  of  that,"  presented 
to  me  now  one  thing  and  now  another,  as  due  to  some 
identifiable  agency,  usually  physical.  Though  his  religious 
views  prevented  him  from  denying  the  miraculous,  yet  so 


6  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  [1857. 

frequently  did  there  recnr  tlie  interpretation  of  things  as 
natural,  and  so  little  reference  did  he  make  to  the  super- 
natural, that  there  grew  up  in  me  a  tacit  belief  that 
whatever  occurred  had  its  assignable  cause  of  a  com- 
prehensible kind.  Such  notions  as  uniformity  of  law  and  an 
established  order,  were  of  course  not  then  entertained;  but 
the  kind  of  thinking  into  which  I  had  been  led,  and  which 
was  in  part  natural  to  me,  prepared  the  way  for  acceptance 
of  such  notions  in  due  time.  How  deep-seated  had  become 
the  implied  kind  of  consciousness,  was  shown  a  little  later 
by  the  incident  I  narrated  as  occurring  at  Hinton  when 
Amott's  Physics  was  being  read  aloud ;  and  when  I  called 
in  question  the  conception  of  vis  inertice  there  set  forth, 
which,  as  I  dimly  perceived,  was  irreconcilable  with  that 
conception  of  causation  I  had  come  to  entertain.  The 
same  mental  proclivity  displayed  itself  during  the  later 
years  of  my  youth  in  the  discussions  continually  entered 
upon.  Yery  rarely  if  ever  did  I  cite  an  authority  for  any 
opinion  expressed ;  but  always  the  course  taken  was  that 
of  seeking  to  justify  an  opinion  by  reference  to  natural 
necessities  or  probabilities.  Doubtless  my  intellectual 
leaning  towards  belief  in  natural  causation  everywhere 
operating,  and  my  consequent  tendency  to  disbelieve  alleged 
miracles,  had  much  to  do  with  my  gradual  relinquishment 
of  the  current  creed  and  its  associated  story  of  creation — 
a  relinquishment  which  went  on  insensibly  during  early 
manhood.  \  Doubtless,  too,  a  belief  in  evolution  at  largo 
^was  then  latent;  since,  little  as  the  fact  is  recognized, 
\  anyone  who,  abandoning  the  supernaturalism  of  theology, 
accepts  in  full  the  naturalism  of  science,  tacitly  asserts 
that  all  things  as  they  now  exist  have  been  evolved^  The 
doctrine  of  the  universality  of  natural  causation,  has  for 
its  inevitable  corollary  the  doctrine  that  the  Universe  and 
all  things  in  it  have  reached  their  present  forms  through 
successive  stages  physically  necessitated.  No  such  corol- 
lary, however,  had  at  that  time  made  itself  manifest  to 


Mt,S7.]  a  system  projected.  7 

me;  and  I  cannot  recall  any  definite  belief  then  enter- 
tained about  the  origin  of  the  Universe  or  the  origin  of 
living  things.  The  first  pronounced  convictions  on  these 
matterswere,  as  I  have  said,  due  to  the  reading  of  Lyell's 
Principles  of  Geology  when  I  was  twenty :  his  arguments 
against  Lamarck  producing  in  me  a  partial  acceptance  of 
Lamarck's  view. 

Two  years  after,  in  The  Proper  Sphere  of  Government, 
there  was  shown  an  unhesitating  belief  that  the  phenomena 
of  both  individual  life  and  social  life,  conform  to  law; 
and  there  was  insistence  on  the  progressive  adaptation 
of  constitution  to  conditions :  implying  the  influence  of  the 
development  hypothesis  previously  accepted.  Eight  years 
later  increased  consistency  and  definiteness  were  given  to 
these  views  in  Social  Statics.  Though,  as  shown  in  the 
chapter  on  "The  Divine  Idea,"  positive  theism  was  im- 
plied ;  and  though  teleological  conceptions  were  involved; 
yet,  practically,  the  supematuralism  was  almost  hidden 
behind  the  naturalism.  Everything  was  referred  to  the  un- 
varying course  of  causation,  no  less  uniform  in  the  spheres 
of  life  and  mind  than  in  the  sphere  of  inanimate  existence. 
Continuous  adaptation  was  insisted  on  as  holding  of  all 
organisms,  and  of  mental  faculties  as  well  as  bodily.  For 
this  adaptation,  the  first  cause  assigned  was  the  increase  or 
decrease  of  structure  consequent  on  increase  or  decrease  of 
function;  and  the  second  cause  assigned  was  the  killing  off, 
or  dying  out,  of  individuals  least  adapted  to  the  require- 
ments of  their  lives.  (.The  ideally  moral  state  was  identified 
with  complete  adjustment  of  constitution  to  conditions ;  and 
the  fundamental  requirement,  alike  ethical  and  political,  was 
represented  as  being  the  rigorous  maintenance  of  the  con- 
ditions to  harmonious  social  co-operation;  with  the  cer- 
tainty that  human  nature  will  gradually  be  moulded  to  fit 
them.  The  dependence  of  institutions  upon  individual 
character  was  dwelt  on;  the  reciprocal  influences  of  the 
two  emphasized ;  and  the  adjustment  of  moral  ideas  to  the 


8  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  [1857. 

social  state  illustrated.  A  physiological  view  of  social 
actions  was  taken;  on  sundry  occasions  tlie  expression  "social 

Wgaiiism  "  was  used ;  tte  aggregation  of  citizens  forming  a 
faation  was  compared  with  the  aggregation  of  cells  forming 
a  living  body ;  the  progress  from  a  whole  made  up  of  like 

/parts  which  have  but  little  mutual  dependence,  to  a  whole 
made  up  of  unlike  parts  which  are  mutually  dependent  in 
a  high  degree,  was  shown  to  be  a  progress  common  to 
individual  organisms  and  social  organisms.  So  that  the 
conception  of  progress  subsequently  to  be  presented  in  a 

^ore  generalized  form,  was  evidently  foreshadowed. 

Thus  far,  acceptance  of  the  developmental  idea  had  been 
tacit  only ;  but  soon  after  the  publication  of  Social  Statics 
it  was  avowed :  the  essay  on  the  "Development  Hypothesis/' 
published  in  March,  1852,  being  a  profession  of  faith. 
Immediately  after,  in  "A  Theory  of  Population,"  &c., 
came  an  argument  which,  dealing  with  only  one  aspect 
of  evolution — the  decrease  of  fertility  that  accompanies 
increase  of  development — nevertheless  practically  assumed 
the  rest.  Assigning  for  this  inverse  relation  necessary 
physical  causes,  it  also  assigned  to  necessary  physical 
causes,  the  anticipated  increase  of  mental  development  and 

(decrease  of  fertilityV^inted  out  as  likely  to  occur  in  the 
human  race  under  thafr'growing  competition  )entailed  by 
pressure  of  population.  Treating  though  it  did  of  a  political 
question,  the  essay  on  "Over-legislation,"  not  long  after- 
wards published,  betrayed  the  same  general  mode  of  think- 
ing. It  assumed  that  social  arrangements  and  institutions 
are  products  of  natural  causes,  and  that  they  have  a  normal 
order  of  growth. 

An  additional  element  of  thought  of  great  importance 
now  came  into  play.  When  looking  through  the  edition  of 
Carpenter's  Principles  of  Physiology  published  in  1851,  for 
the  purpose  of  writing  a  notice  of  it  in  the  Westminster 
Review,  I  became  acquainted  with  von  Baer's  statement 
that  the  development  of  every  organism  is  a  change  from 


/Et.  37.]  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  9 

homogeneity  to  heterogeneity.  The  substance  of  the 
thought  was  not  new  to  me,  though  its  form  was.  As  above 
shown,  in  Social  Statics,  citing  facts  in  illustration  from  ^ 
Professors^ Owen  and  Rymer  Jones,  I  had  emphasized  the 
truth  that(in  ascending  grades  of  organization,  "  we  find  a 
gradual  diminution  in  the  number  of  like  parts,  and  a  mul- 
tiplication of  unlike  ones.";  In  the  one  extreme  there  are 
but  few  functions,  and  many  similar  agents  to  each  function : 
in  the  other,  there  are  many  functions,  and  few  similar 
agents  to  each  function."  And  there  is  also  emphasized 
the  truth  that  "just  this  same  increasing  subdivision  of 
functions  takes  place  in  the  development  of  society  " — that 
"  the  earliest  social  organizations  consist  almost  wholly  of 
repetitions  of  one  element;"  while,  with  social  progress 
there  goes  multiplication  of  "  distinct  classes  "  and  "  special 
occupations."  But  in  the  first  place,  the  conception  thus 
reached  had  not  a  sufficiently  consolidated  form  to  make  it 
an  efficient  factor  in  further  thought ;  and  in  the  second 
place,  involving  as  it  did  the  idea  of  function  along  with 
the  idea  of  structure,  it  was  limited  to  organic  phenomena. 
It  was  otherwise  with  the  more  generalized  expression  of  von 
Baer.  Besides  being  brief  it  was  not  necessarily  limited  to 
the  organic  world;  though  it  was  by  him  recognized  only  as 
the  law  of  evolution  of  each  individual  organism.  Added 
to  my  stock  of  general  ideas,  this  idea  did  not  long  lie 
dormant.  It  was  soon  extended  to  certain  phenomena  of 
the  super-organic  class.  At  the  close  of  the  essay  on  "The 
Philosophy  of  Style,"  published  in  October,  1852,  it  made 
an  unobtrusive  first  appearance  as  supplying  a  measure  of 
superiority  in  style.  Change  from  homogeneity  to  hetero- 
geneity, began  to  be  recognized  as  that  change  in  which 
progress  other  than  organic,  consists.  But  this  mode  of 
expressing  the  idea  did  not  at  once  replace  the  one  used  in 
Social  Statics.  The  doctrine  set  forth  in  the  essay  on 
"Manners  and  Fashion,"  published  in  April,  1854,  that  the 
ceremonial,  political,  and  ecclesiastical  controls,  are  diver- 


10  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  [1857, 

gent  forms  of  one  original  control,  again  exhibits  in  its 
original  shape  tlie  conception  that  advance  from  lower  to 
higher  is  characterized  by  increasing  multiformity. 

How  dominant  the  hypothesis  of  development  had  now 
become  with  me,  is  curiously  shown  in  an  essay  on  ''  The 
Universal  Postulate,"  published  in  the  Westminster  Review 
for  October,  1853.  Irrelevant  though  the  hypothesis  seems 
to  a  discussion  concerning  the  test  of  truth ;  yet  it  came  out 
in  the  expressed  belief  that  fundamental  intuitions  of  which 
the  negations  are  inconceivable,  are  products  of  organized 
and  inherited  effects  of  experiences  :  evidently  the  germ  of 
an  evolutionary  psychology. 

Further  extensions  in  the  same  fields,  accompanied  by 
increased  definiteness  and  the  sudden  appearance  of  certain 
other  cardinal  ideas  of  like  generality,  occurred  in  the 
two  essays  published  at  midsummer,  1854,  on  "The  Genesis 
of  Science  "  and  "  The  Art  of  Education."  A  leading  con- 
ception set  forth  in  the  first  of  these  essays,  was  that  the 
sciences  neither  arise  in  serial  order  nor  can  be  arranged 
in  serial  order,  but  that  their  relations  are  those  of  diver- 
gence and  re-divergence :  increasing  heterogeneity  in  the 
body  of  science  being  an  implication.  Moreover  it  was 
shown  that  as  the  diverging  branches  of  science  inosculate 
more  and  more,  there  is  an  advancing  integration  keeping 
pace  with  the  advancing  differentiation.  And  it  was  also 
pointed  out  that  along  with  growing  heterogeneity  there  is 
growing  definiteness.  There  were  kindred  ideas  in  "  The 
Art  of  Education."  It  was  contended  that  as  the  course  of 
mental  development  is  from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  and 
from  the  indefinite  to  the  definite,  educational  methods 
must  be  adjusted  to  this  course  of  development. 

A  large  step  was  next  made.  The  belief  set  forth  in 
the  early  essay  on  "  The  Development  Hypothesis,"  implied 
that  not  only  had  bodily  organization  been  naturally 
evolved,  but  mental  organization  too.  In  the  article  on 
"The  Genesis  of  Science"  I  had  been  led  to  trace  the 


Mt.  37.]  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  11 

growth  of  definite  reasoning,  and  the  gradual  formation  of 
cardinal  scientific  ideas,  as  resulting  from  the  accumulating 
experiences  of  mankind.  Hence  arose  the  thought  of 
writing  a  Principles  of  Psychology,  tracing  out  the  genesis 
of  mind  in  all  its  forms,  sub-human  and  human,  as  pro- 
duced by  the  organized  and  inherited  effects  of  mental 
actions.  In  the  survey  of  so  relatively  wide  a  field  of 
phenomena,  there  of  course  occurred  opportunities  for 
further  development  of  the  conceptions  already  entertained; 
and  further  development  took  place.  An  early-impressed 
belief  in  the  increase  of  faculty  by  exercise  in  the  indi- 
vidual, and  the  subsequently  accepted  idea  of  adaptation  as 
a  universal  principle  of  bodily  life,  now  took,  when  contem- 
plating the  phenomena  of  mind,  an  appropriately  modified 
form.  Progressive  adaptation  became  increasing  adjustment 
of  inner  subjective  relations  to  outer  objective  relations — 
increasing  correspondence  between  the  two.  Successive 
chapters  treat  of  the  correspondence  as  "  direct  and  homo- 
geneous," as  "  direct  but  heterogeneous,"  as  "  increasing  in 
speciality,"  as  "increasing  in  complexity,"  and  also  of  '*^the 
integration  of  correspondences." 

Quite  naturally  then  on  thus  recognizing  throughout  a 
further  vast  field  of  phenomena  the  increase  of  hetero- 
geneity, of  speciality,  of  integration,  previously  recog- 
nized as  traits  of  progress  in  various  minor  groups  of 
phenomena,  there  was  suggested  the  question — Are  not 
these  the  traits  of  progress  of  all  kinds  ?  And  it  needed 
but  to  ask  the  question  to  find  an  affirmative  answer. 
Brief  inspection  made  it  manifest  that  the  law  held  in  the 
inorganic  world,  as  in  the  organic  and  super-organic. 
There  resulted  forthwith  the  conception  of  an  essay  which 
should  set  forth  the  universal  presence  of  these  traits — or 
rather,  the  first  of  them ;  for  my  mind  was  at  the  time  so 
pre-occupied  with  the  thought  of  increasing  heterogeneity 
as  a  universal  trait,  that  no  space  seems  to  have  been  left 
for  recognition  of  the  truth  that  increasing  integration  and 


12  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  [1857. 

increasing  definiteness  were  also  universal  traits.  There 
immediately  occurred  a  further  significant  advance.  After 
recognition  of  the  truth  that  increasing  heterogeneity  is 
universal,  there  arose  the  question — "Why  is  it  universal  ? 
And  a  transition  from  the  inductive  stage  to  the  deductive 
stage  was  shown  in  the  answer — the  transformation  results 
from  the  unceasing  multiplication  of  effects.  When,  shortly 
after,  there  came  the  perception  that  the  condition  of 
homogeneity  is  an  unstable  condition,  yet  another  step 
towards  the  completely  deductive  stage  was  made.  And  here 
it  may  be  remarked  that  with  this  change  from  the  empiri- 
cal to  the  rational,  the  theorem  passed  into  the  region  of 
physical  science.  It  became  now  a  question  of  causes  and 
effects  reduced  to  their  simple  forms — a  question  of  molar 
and  molecular  forces  and  energies — a  question  of  the  never- 
ending  re-distribution  of  matter  and  motion  considered 
under  its  most  general  aspects.  Thus  it  is  clear  that 
something  like  a  consolidated  system  of  thought  was 
nearly  reached. 

On  glancing  over  these  stages  it  is,  indeed,  observable 
that  the  advance  towards  a  complete  conception  of  evolu- 
tion was  itself  a  process  of  evolution.  At  first  there  was 
simply  an  unshaped  belief  in  the  development  of  living 
things ;  including,  in  a  vague  way,  social  development. 
The  extension  of  von  Baer's  formula  expressing  the 
development  of  each  organism,  first  to  one  and  then  to 
another  group  of  phenomena,  until  all  were  taken  in  as 
parts  of  a  whole,  exemplified  the  process  of  integration. 
With  advancing  integration  there  went  that  advancing 
heterogeneity  implied  by  inclusion  of  the  several  classes 
of  inorganic  phenomena  and  the  several  classes  of  super- 
organic  phenomena  in  the  same  category  with  organic 
phenomena.  And  then  the  indefinite  idea  of  progress  passed 
into  the  definite  idea  of  evolution,  when  there  was  recog- 
nized the  essential  nature  of  the  change,  as  a  physically- 
determined  transformation  conforming  to  ultimate  laws  of 


iET.  37.]  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  13 

force.  Not  until  setting  down  as  above  tlie  snccessive 
stages  of  thought,  was  I  myself  aware  how  naturally  each 
stage  had  prepared  the  way  for  the  next,  and  how  each 
additional  conclusion  increased  the  mental  proclivity  towards 
further  conclusions  lying  in  the  same  direction.  It  now 
seems  that  there  was  an  almost  inevitable  transition  to  that 
coherent  body  of  beliefs  which  soon  took  place. 

What  initiated  the  unification?  No  positive  answer  is 
furnished  by  my  memory ;  but  there  is  an  answer  which, 
on  reviewing  the  circumstances,  may  be  considered  as 
almost  certainly  the  true  one. 

As  above  narrated,  I  had  recently  been  collecting 
together,  revising,  and  publishing,  a  number  of  essays. 
The  transaction  had  entailed  two  readings.  There  was  the 
preparation  of  them  for  the  press ;  and  there  was  the 
correction  of  the  proofs  as  they  passed  through  the  press. 
Hitherto  the  various  evolutionary  ideas  which,  during  the 
preceding  six  years  had  been  from  time  to  time  expressed 
in  these  essays,  had  been  lying  apart  in  my  thoughts ;  but 
now  they  were  brought  together  and  twice  over  contem- 
plated in  immediate  succession.  Obviously  this  process 
was  one  fitted  to  disclose  kinships  and  connexions  before 
unobserved,  and  fitted,  therefore,  to  produce  consolidation. 

With  this  special  cause  there  probably  co-operated  a 
more  general  cause.  The  time  was  one  at  which  certain 
all-embracing  scientific  truths  of  a  simple  order,  were  being 
revealed.  Years  before  had  been  published  the  work  of 
Sir  William  Grove  on  The  Correlation  of  Fhysical  Forces; 
and  now  the  scientific  world  was  becoming  everywhere 
possessed  by  the  general  doctrine  of  the  "  Conservation  of 
Force,"  as  it  was  then  called.  When  writing  the  Principles 
of  Psychology  three  years  previously,  and  proposing  (in  the 
division  referred  to  in  the  preface  as  then  withheld,  but 
which  was  added  in  the  second  edition)  to  interpret  nervous 
phenomena  as  resulting  from  discharges  along  lines  of  least 


14  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  [1857. 

resistance,  my  tendency  to  seek  for  ultimate  physical 
principles  as  keys  to  complex  phenomena,  had  shown 
itself.  Apt  thus  to  look  at  things,  and  prepared  therefore 
to  be  especially  receptive  of  such  truths  as  that  the  various 
kinds  of  force  are  but  different  forms  of  one  force,  and  that 
this  one  force  can  in  no  case  be  either  increased  or 
decreased,  but  only  transformed ;  it  is  manifest  that  I  was 
ready  to  have  the  several  general  conceptions  above 
described,  still  further  unified  by  afl&liation  on  these  ultimate 
physical  principles.  There  naturally  arose  the  perception 
that  the  instability  of  the  homogeneous  and  the  multiplica- 
tion of  effects,  must  be  derivative  laws ;  and  that  the  laws 
from  which  they  are  derived  must  be  those  ultimate  laws 
of  force  similarly  traceable  throughout  all  orders  of  exist- 
ences. There  came  the  thought  that  the  concrete  sciences 
at  large  should  have  their  various  classes  of  facts  presented 
in  subordination  to  these  universal  principles,  proximate 
and  ultimate.  Clearly  the  astronomic,  geologic,  biologic, 
psychologic,  and  sociologic  groups  of  phenomena,  form  a 
connected  aggregate  of  phenomena:  the  successive  parts 
having  arisen  one  out  of  another  by  insensible  gradations, 
and  admitting  only  of  conventional  separations.  Clearly,  too, 
they  are  unified  by  exhibiting  in  common  the  law  of  trans- 
formation and  the  causes  of  transformation.  And  clearly, 
therefore,  they  should  be  arranged  into  a  coherent  body 
of  doctrine,  held  together  by  their  fundamental  kinships. 

Though  naturally  I  cannot  say  that  these  were  the  ideas 
which  actually  occurred,  and  that  this  was  their  order; 
yet  that  some  such  ideas  occurred  in  some  such  order,  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  I  shortly  sketched  out  a  scheme 
of  the  kind  indicated.  Evidently  I  felt  at  the  time  that 
I  had  made  an  important  step ;  for  this  rough  draft,  then 
drawn  up  as  follows,  is  dated. 


/Et.  37.]  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  15 

6  January,  1858. 
Vol.  I. 
Paet  I.  The  Unkkowable. 

Chap.  1.  Truth  generally  lies  in  the  co-ordination  of  antagonist 
opinions. 

—  2.  Failure  of  Theological  Hypotheses. 

—  3.  Limitations  and  Insufficiency  of  Science. 

—  4.  Beconciliation  of  Theology  and  Science  lies  in  the  recog- 

nition of  an  Omnipresent  Activity. 

Paet  II.  The  Laws  of  the  Unknowable. 

Chap.  1.  Though  the  Omnipresent  Activity  is  unknowable,  experience 
proves  its  laws  to  be  uniform  and  ascertainable  (illustrated 
by  the  law  of  all  Progress). 

—  2.  The  first  law — Instability  of  the  homogeneous. 

—  3,  The    second    law — All    force    follows    the    line    of    least 

resistance, 
■i—    4.  The  third  law — Every  cause  produces  more  than  one  effect. 

—  5.  The  fourth  law — The  correlation  of  forces. 

—  6.  The  fifth  law — The  conservation  of  forces  (force  indestruct- 

ible). 

—  7.  The  sixth  law — The  Equilibration  of  Forces  (tendency  to 

ultimate  equilibrium). 

—  8.  These,  being  the  laws  of  all  force  whatever,  underlie  aU 

phenomena  whatever. 

Pabt  III.  Astronomic  Evolution. 

Chap.  1.  The  Nebular  Hypothesis. 

—  2.  Do.  Do.        as  applying  to  the  Universe. 

—  3.  The  EquiUbration  of  Light  and  Heat  as  well  as  Mechanical 

force. 

Part  IV.  Geologic  Evolution. 

Physical  Genesis  of  the  Earth. 
Chemical       Do.  Do. 

Vol.  II.  THE  PEINCIPLES  OP  BIOLOGY. 
Past  I.  Lite  in  General. 


Part  II.  Evolution  of  Lifb  in  General  (the  Development  Hypotheaia). 
Part  HI.  Evolution  of  Individual  Organisms. 


Part  IV.  Morphology  (Law  of  Organic  Symmetry). 
Pabx  V.  Law  of  Multiplication  (Theory  of  Population). 


16  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  [1858. 

Vol.  III.  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  PSYCHOLOGY  (objective). 


Paet  I.  Mental  Dynamics 


The  unwiitten  part,  in  which  is  to  be  shown 
how  the  genesis  of  Intelligence  conforms  to  the 
laws  of  force,  and  more  particularly  the  law  that 
force  follows  the  line  of  least  resistance. 

Part  II.  General  Synthesis 
(as  written). 

Part  HI.  Special  Synthesis 
(as  written). 

Vol.  IV.  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  PSYCHOLOGY  (subjective). 
Part  IV.  Special  Analysis 
(as  written). 

Part  V.  General  Analysis 
(as  written). 

Vol.  V.  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SOCIOLOGY. 
(Divided  into  several  parts,  showing  how  the  growth,  structure, 
and  actions  of  societies  are  determined  by  the  laws  of  force  laid 
down — how  the  general  force  is  seiuatioii  or  desire  which  is  an 
actual  force  expending  itself  in  an  equivalent  of  muscular  con- 
tractions or  labour — how  it  follows  the  line  of  least  resistance — how 
all  phenomena  of  producllon  and  exclianye  result  from  this  force 
following  the  line  of  least  resistance — how  all  the  differentiations 
proceed  in  conformity  with  this  and  the  other  laws  of  force — how 
social  progress  is  an  approximation  to  a  state  of  ultimate 
equilibrium  in  virtue  of  the  equilibrium  of  forces — and  how  finally 
this  state  of  equilibrium  is  the  perfect  or  moral  state.) 

Vol.  VI.  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  RECTITUDE  (personal). 

(Developing  in  detail  the  ultimate  state  of  adaptation  of  constitu- 
tion to  conditions — the  equilibration  of  desires  and  duties,  wanta 
and  satisfactions,  which  civilization  is  producing.) 

Vol.  VII.  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  RECTITUDE  (social). 
Part  I.  Social  Statics. 


Part  II,  Negative  Beneficence. 
Part  III.  Positive  BENKncENCE. 


Developing  in  detail  the  moral  equili- 
bration of  the  social  state. 


Vol.  VIII.  ESSAYS. 
Vol.  XI.  ESSAYS. 
Vol.       X.  ESSAYS. 


This   is    reproduced    verhatira  from    the  crig-inal  draft, 
which  had  been  left  without  any  corrections.     Evidently 


^T.  37.]  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  17 

there  is  mucli  crudity  in  the  portions  which  are  detailed ; 
and  the  other  portions,  merely  indicated,  are  not  thought 
out.  But  it  is  remarkable  that  the  scheme  as  at  first  thus 
suddenly  conceived,  should  have  resembled  as  much  as  it 
does  the  scheme  eventually  executed.  Three  days  after 
the  date  of  this  sketch  I  wrote  home  as  follows : — 

" 13  Loudoun  Eoad 

9  Jany  '68. 
My  deab  Father 

I  sent  the  Westminster  yesterday.    When  done  with  circulate  it  in  the 
usual  order. 

' '  Within  the  last  ten  days  my  ideas  on  various  matters  have  suddenly 
crystallized  into  a  complete  whole.  Many  things  which  were  before  lying 
separate  have  fallen  into  their  places  as  harmonious  parts  of  a  system  that 
admits  of  logical  development  from  the  simplest  general  principles.  I  send 
you  a  brief  sketch  which  will  give  you  some  idea  of  it.  In  process  of  time 
I  hope  gradually  to  develop  the  system  here  sketched  out. 
' '  I  am  very  well.  After  having  had  a  rest  I  am  just  beginning  the  article 
for  the  British  Quarterly. 

"I  wish  you  had  some  good  news  to  give  me  about  the  Bridgegate  property. 
My  mother's  cold  is  by  this  time  I  hope  quite  well. 

Affectionately 

H.  S." 

A  verification  of  date  is  yielded  by  a  subsequent  letter 
from  my  father.  Finding  me  but  a  poor  correspondent 
and  apt  to  overlook  the  questions  he  asked,  he  had  fallen 
into  the  habit  of  writing  out  these  questions  as  they 
occurred  to  him  from  time  to  time  on  separate  half-sheets 
of  note-paper :  each  question  having  beneath  it  a  space  to 
contain  my  answer.  Two  such  separate  half-sheets,  both 
dated  January  31, 1858,  contain  these  questions  and  answers. 

"How  do  you  reconcile  your  omnipresent  activity  with  the  future  equi- 
librium you  speak  of  ? 

"  An  equilibrium  like  that  of  the  solar  system  consists  with  activity. 
"  Shall  you  be  able  to  prove  that  perfect  homogeneity  is  unstable  ? 
"  Absolute  homogeneity  extending  throughout  infinity  would  be  stable. 
"  Can  you  tell  me  whether  the  future  work  alluded  to  in  your  Social  Statics 
embraces  the  Principles  of  Sociology  together  with  the  Principles  of  Eectitude? 

*No. 

'  I  am  puzzled  to  know  how  your  vol.  7  will  be  able  to  take  in  with  Social 
Statics  Negative  Beneficence  and  Positive  Beneficence  and  retain  a  moderate 

2 


18  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  [1858, 

Bize.  Shall  you  take  part  of  the  matter  of  Social  Statics  from  it  and  put  to 
other  chapters  ? 

"Yes. 

"  Did  you  wish  me  to  keep  these  crystallized  ideas  of  yours  to  myself  or  do 
you  wish  me  to  divulge  them? 

' '  Keep  them  to  yourseli  " 

Thus  then  it  is  clear  that  the  first  days  of  1858  saw  the 
inception  of  the  undertaking  to  which  the  rest  of  my  life 
was  to  be  devoted. 

An  engagement  had  been  made  in  November,  1857,  to 
write  an  article  for  the  April  number  of  the  British  Quarterly 
on  the  moral  discipline  of  children;  and  the  writing  of 
this  essay  (which  forms  one  of  the  chapters  in  the  little 
volume  on  Education)  occupied  me  during  the  early  part 
of  1858. 

Concerned  with  the  process  of  mental  unfolding,  the 
subject  was  certain  to  be  treated  by  me  from  the  point  of 
view  now  reached.  Consciously  or  unconsciously  the  theory 
of  evolution  furnished  guidance.  One  of  the  initial  con- 
ceptions is  that  since  inherited  constitution  must  ever  be 
the  chief  factor  in  determining  character,  it  is  absurd  to 
suppose  that  any  system  of  moral  discipline  can  produce  an 
ideal  character,  or  anything  more  than  some  moderate 
advance  towards  it.  "  The  guiding  principle  of  moral  edu- 
cation "  especially  insisted  on,  is  that  there  shall  habitually 
be  experienced  the  natural  reaction  consequent  on  each 
action.  As  the  ascent  through  lower  forms  of  life  has 
been  effected  by  the  discipline  of  enjoying  the  pleasures 
and  suffering  the  pains  which  followed  this  or  that 
kind  of  conduct;  so  further  ascent  above  the  form  of  life 
now  reached  must  be  thus  effected.  One  of  the  corollaries 
drawn  is  that  as  throughout  our  converse  with  surrounding 
Nature,  most  of  our  activities  are  unrestrained,  but  those 
which  bring  penalties  continue  to  bring  penalties  whenever 
they  are  repeated — Nature  accepting  no  excuses;  so,  with 
educational  discipline,  while  there  should  be  no  needless 


^T.37.]  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  19 

restraints,  the  needful  restraints  should  be  unvarying 
and  irresistible. 

These  leading  ideas  sufficiently  indicate  the  way  in  which 
moral  education  was  conceived  as  simply  a  final  part  of  the 
process  by  which  the  emotional  nature  has  been  evolved — 
a  process  which  in  the  future  is  to  follow  the  same  lines  as 
in  the  past. 

Life  in  those  days  was  passing  not  unpleasantly.  Some 
incidents  of  the  time  I  give  in  extracts  from  letters.  The 
first  is  from  one  to  my  mother  dated  February  19. 

••I  am  going  on  very  well — sleeping  better  for  the  last  ten  days,  and 
writing  all  morning  without  thinking  about  my  head.  Indeed  I  have  rarely 
any  sensation  now.  The  good  living  and  the  lively  society  here  evidently 
Euit  me  well. 

' '  I  dined  lately  at  Sir  John  Trelawney's,  in  company  with  Mr.  Grote  the 
historian  of  Greece,  and  Mr.  Buckle,  the  new  historian,  whom  I  knew  pre- 
viously.  Mr.  Grote  I  wanted  to  know.  He  was  very  civil  and  hoped  we 
should  meet  again. 

"I  saw  John  Mill  lately.  He  was  complimentary  about  the  essays;  telling 
me  he  had  read  aU  those  he  had  not  before  seen  and  had  re-read  the  others." 

Here  is  part  of  a  letter  to  my  father  dated  March  1  : — 

"  The  enclosed  note  is  from  the  Editor  of  the  Quarterly  Review.  The 
article  which  I  am  to  write  is  on  '  Physical  Training,'  in  which  I  am 
proposing  to  expose  the  bad  results  of  under-feeding,  under-clothing,  and 
over-education.  I  have  not  written  for  the  Quarterly  before,  and  as  their 
pay  ia  the  same  as  the  Edinburgh  (£16  per  sheet)  I  am  glad  to  make 
the  connexion." 
In  a  letter  to  him  dated  March  22nd  occurs  the  passage : — 

"  I  am  day  by  day  developing  further  the  scheme  of  which  I  gave  you 
a  sketch.  Another  general  law  of  force  has  occurred  to  me  since  I  saw  you, 
viz. — the  universality  of  rhythm;  which  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 
antagonism  of  opposing  forces.  This  holds  equally  in  the  undulations  of 
the  etherial  medium,  and  the  actions  and  reactions  of  social  life." 

A  later  note  runs  : — "  I  dined  with  Buckle  the  other  day. 
Among  other  guests  were  Mr.  Grote,  Sir  Henry  Holland, 
Monckton  Milnes,  m.p."  [afterwards  Lord  Houghton] . 

The  essay  on  physical  training  above  referred  to  as 
having  been   written   for   the  Quarterly  Review   was   not 


20  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  [1858. 

accepted  by  the  editor :  at  that  time  the  Rev.  Mr.  Elwin. 
Possibly  its  conceptions,  anti-ascetic  as  they  were,  did  not 
harmonize  either  with  his  theological  system  or  with  the 
ideas  which  public -school  life  had  fostered  in  him.  It  was 
not  until  April,  1859,  that  this  essay,  now  forming  the 
fourth  chapter  of  the  little  book  on  Education,  was  pub- 
lished in  the  British  Quarterly  Review. 

Though  it  makes  no  reference  to  the  doctrine  of  evolu- 
tion, its  ideas  are  congruous  with  the  doctrine  in  so  far  that 
the  method  of  nature  is  emphasized  as  that  which  should 
be  kept  in  view  when  deciding  on  methods  of  physical 
training.  There  is  an  implied  recognition  of  the  principle 
conformed  to  in  the  rearing  of  offspring  throughout  the 
animal-world  at  large ;  namely  that  in  proportion  as  growth 
and  organization  are  incomplete,  much  must  be  given  and 
little  demanded.  It  is  argued  that  as  with  inferior  creatures, 
early  life  is  distinguished  by  the  continual  receipt  of 
benefits  and  absence  of  labours;  so  with  ourselves,  early 
life,  instead  of  being  made  often  as  laborious  as  adult  life, 
should  be  so  carried  on  as  to  favour  more  the  develop- 
ment of  the  body,  and  to  postpone  later  such  development 
of  the  mind  as  requires  any  great  and  continuous  effort.* 
In  harmony  with  this  view,  it  is  contended  that  for 
bodily  welfare  the  sensations  are  the  most  trustworthy 
guides;  and  that  the  mischiefs  of  bad  physical  manage- 
ment result  from  disregard  of  them.  Though  it  is  not  so 
alleged  in  the  essay,  this  guiding  principle,  too,  is  a  corol- 
lary from  a  general  biological  truth — the  truth  that  among 
all  lower  forms  of  life,  uncontrolled  by  commands,  traditions, 
or  creeds,  there  has  been  no  other  prompter  to  right 
physical  actions  than  obedience  to  the  sensations :  the 
continual  killing  off  of  those  in  which  the  two  were  not 
rightly  adjusted  to  the  needs,  having  maintained  and 
improved  the  adjustment.  Whence  it  follows  that,  inherit- 
ing as  we  do  adjustments  established  during  the  progress 
*  For  elucidations  see  Principles  of  Sociology,  §  322. 


^T.  38.]  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  21 

through  lower  forms  of  life,  our   sensations    are  on  the 
whole  trustworthy  guides  to  bodily  welfare.'^ 

So  that  though  this  essay  was  not  conspicuously  evolu- 
tionary in  its  doctrines,  yet  its  doctrines  were  evolutionary 
in  their  unavowed  origin. 

A  few  years  before  this  time,  the  great  telescope  of 
Lord  Rosse  had  resolved  into  stars,  sundry  nebulaa  which 
were  previously  regarded  as  irresolvable.  There  was  drawn 
the  inference  that  all  nebulae,  so  called,  consist  of  stars; 
and  that  their  nebulous  appearance  is  solely  the  result  of 
extreme  remoteness.  This  inference  was  at  that  time 
generally  accepted  among  astronomers. 

As  the  doctrine  of  evolution  in  its  widest  sense  sets  out 
with  that  state  of  matter  and  motion  implied  by  the 
nebular  hypothesis,  it  naturally  happened  that  this  tacit 
denial  of  the  nebular  hypothesis  did  not  leave  me  un- 
moved. I  saw  reasons  for  questioning  the  legitimacy  of 
the  inferences  above  described,  and  was  prompted  to  look 
more  nearly  into  the  matter.  Finding  abundant  grounds 
for  dissent,  I  set  them  forth  in  an  article  for  the  West- 
minster, entitled  "Recent  Astronomy  and  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis." 

The  first  part  of  the  article,  having  for  its  purpose  to 
show  that  the  conclusion  which  had  been  drawn  from  the 
assigned  evidence  was  logically  untenable,  was  not  an 
inappropriate  undertaking  for  an  outsider ;  but  the  under- 
taking grew  into  an  exposition  and  defence  of  the  nebular 

*  The  reader  will  find  explanations  in  the  Principles  of  Psychology, 
§124,  and  in  the  Data  of  Ethics,  §§33 — 6.  Study  of  the  passages  there  found 
will  prevent  him  from  identifying  sensations  and  emotions.  Careless  use  of 
words,  and  consequent  careless  thinking,  leads  nine  people  out  of  ten  to 
confuse  together  all  the  feelings  in  such  wise  that  one  who  says  that  sensa- 
tions are  trustworthy  guides  to  bodily  welfare,  is  habitually  represented  as 
Baying  that  we  ought  in  all  cases  to  follow  the  promptings  of  our  feelings : 
the  truth  being  that  we  have  often  other  ends  than  bodily  welfare  to  be 
pursued ;  and  further,  that  though  the  sensations  are  fairly  well  adjusted  to 
the  requirements,  the  emotions  are  by  no  means  thus  adjusted. 


22  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED,  [1858. 

hypothesis  considered  in  detail.  With  a  daring  which 
I  look  back  upon  with  surprise,  I  set  forth  sundry  sugges- 
tions, interpretations,  and  speculations,  in  aid  of  it.  There 
was  an  attempt  to  show  how  nebular  rotation  would  be  set 
up  in  masses  of  diffused  nebulous  matter.  Arguments 
were  drawn  from  the  distribution  of  comets;  from  the 
inclinations  of  the  orbit-planes  of  the  planets;  from  the 
inclinations  of  the  planetary  axes  to  their  respective  orbit- 
planes;  from  the  velocities  of  rotation  of  the  planets;  and 
from  the  distribution  of  satellites.  An  endeavour  was 
made  to  show  that  for  the  various  specific  gravities  of  the 
planets  the  hypothesis  yields  an  explanation;  and  that  the 
differences  in  temperature  among  them,  which  there  is 
reason  to  infer,  as  well  as  their  general  differences  from 
the  Sun  in  respect  of  temperature,  are  also  such  as  the 
hypothesis  implies :  to  which  last  argument  there  was 
added  an  inference  respecting  the  composition  of  the  solar 
atmosphere. 

An  astronomer  would  have  been  chary  about  committing 
himself  to  so  many  speculative  views.  To  propound  them 
needed  one  who  had  not  an  established  scientific  reputation 
at  stake.  Naturally  there  were  errors  in  the  article.  Two, 
however,  of  the  conclusions  drawn  have  since  been  verified. 
Mr.  Proctor  has  given  abundant  further  proof  that  the 
nebulaB  are  not  remote  sidereal  systems ;  and  within  some 
three  years  after  the  publication  of  the  article,  the 
researches  of  Kirchhoff  and  Bunsen  proved,  by  the  help  of 
the  spectroscope,  the  truth  of  the  speculation  I  had  ven- 
tured concerning  the  photosphere  of  the  sun.  The  article 
was  published  in  the  Westminster  Review  for  July.  Some 
c  rrespondence  ensued  with  Sir  John  Herschel  and  Sir  G. 
1.  Airy,  then  Astronomer  Royal,  who  were  good  enough 
to  favour  me  with  criticisms.  On  two  points  I  had  the 
satisfaction  of  finding  the  disagreement  of  the  first  met  by 
the  agreement  of  the  last. 


iET.  38.]  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  23 

I  left  town  towards  the  end  of  June,  and  before  going 
elsewhere  spent  a  few  days  at  home. 

The  scheme  which  had  in  January  taken  definite  shape 
in  my  mind,  and  indeed  on  paper,  had  of  course  during  the 
spring  been  the  subject  of  thought  in  respect  of  the  means 
for  carrying  it  into  effect.  I  finally  decided  to  consult  John 
Mill  on  the  matter,  and  wrote  to  him  the  following  letter. 

••  17,  Wilmot  Street, 

Derby,  29  July,  '58. 

Mt  DEAB  Sib, — 

May  I  ask  your  opinion  on  a  point  partly  of  personal  interest,  partly 
of  more  general  interest  ? 

In  the  essays  on  •'  Progress:  its  Law  and  Cause  "  and  on  •'  Transcendental 
Physiology,"  which  I  believe  you  have  read,  are  the  rudiments  of  certain 
general  principles,  which,  at  the  time  they  were  first  enunciated,  I  had  no 
intention  of  developing  further.  But  more  recently,  these  general  principles, 
uniting  with  certain  others  whose  connexion  with  them  I  did  not  before 
recognize,  have  evolved  into  a  form  far  higher  than  I  had  ever  anticipated ; 
and  I  now  find  that  the  various  special  ideas  which  I  had  designed  hereafter 
to  publish  on  certain  divisions  of  Biology,  Psychology  and  Sociology,  have 
fallen  into  their  places  as  parts  of  the  general  body  of  doctrine  thus  origina- 
ting. Having  intended  to  continue  occupying  myself,  as  hitherto,  in  writing 
essays  and  books  embodying  these  various  special  ideas,  I  have  become  still 
more  anxious  to  devote  my  energies  to  the  exposition  of  these  larger  views 
which  include  them,  and,  as  I  think,  reduce  all  the  higher  sciences  to  a 
rational  form. 

But,  unhappily,  my  books  have  at  present  no  adequate  sale.  Not  only 
have  they  entailed  upon  me  the  negative  loss  of  years  spent  without 
remuneration,  but  also  a  heavy  positive  loss  in  unrepaid  expenses  of  publica- 
tion. What  little  property  I  had  has  been  thus  nearly  all  dissipated.  And 
now  that  I  am  more  anxious  than  ever  to  persevere,  it  seems  likely  that  I 
shall  be  unable  to  do  so.  My  health  does  not  permit  me  to  spend  leisure 
hours  in  these  higher  pursuits,  after  a  day  spent  in  remunerative  occupation. 
And  thus  there  appears  no  alternative  but  to  desist. 

Under  these  circumstances  my  question  is — Do  you  think  that  in  the 
reorganized  staff  of  the  Indian  Administration  I  might  find  some  post,  rather 
of  trust  than  of  much  active  duty,  which  would  give  me  an  income  sufficing 
for  my  modest  bachelor  needs,  while  it  would  allow  adequate  leisure  for  the 
prosecution  of  these  aims  ?  I  fear  that  few  if  any  such  posts  are  likely  to 
exist ;  and  that  my  political  views  might  render  some,  even  of  these  few, 
unavailable;  but  it  appears  worth  while  to  inquire.  I  need  hardly  say 
that  my  object  is  so  exclusively  that  which  I  have  explained,  that  a  post 
which  did  not  conduce  to  it  would  have  no  temptation  for  me,  however 
otherwise  desirable. 


24  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  [1858. 

I  ask  your  advice  under  the  belief  that  yon  sympathize  in  the  general 
views  I  wish  to  develop,  and  may  therefore  feel  some  interest  in  the  matter. 

Believe  me, 

Very  truly  yours, 

Herbert  Spenckb." 

Mill's    reply   to   this    letter,   though   sympathetic,   was 

disappointing.      It  held   out  no   encouragement;    and   I 

dropped  all  thought  of  any  such  help  as  an  office  of  the 

kind  described  might  have  given. 

Though  born  in  Derby,  I  had  up  to  this  time  seen  but 
little  of  Derbyshire.  Matlock  I  had  been  to;  but  had  reached 
no  point  further  north.  Mainly  I  fancy  from  lack  of  funds,  I 
decided  to  limit  my  summer  excursion  to  a  ramble  in  the 
Derbyshire  dales ;  hoping  to  find  some  fishing  as  a  pastime. 
Going  as  far  as  Buxton,  and  being  disappointed  in  respect 
of  sport,  I  turned  south  again,  and  settled  myself  at  a 
picturesque  little  place,  the  Briars,  Matlock  Bank,  where  I 
spent  about  a  fortnight :  returning  thence  to  Derby. 

Already,  from  an  illustration  given  a  few  pages  back, 
joined  with  preceding  ones,  some  will  have  inferred  that  I  had 
adopted  Danton's  motto, — De  Vaudace !  encore  de  Vaudace ! 
toujours  de  Vaudace!;  and  while  at  Matlock  Bank  I  furnished 
another  illustration.  I  have  named  the  fact  that  in  1851, 
I  attended  a  series  of  Prof.  Owen's  lectures  on  Comparative 
Osteology ;  and  that  in  the  course  of  them  my  scepticism 
respecting  his  theory  of  the  archetypal  skeleton  and  arche- 
typal vertebra  grew  gradually  stronger,  until  at  the  close 
of  the  course  it  ended  in  complete  disbelief.  No  occasion 
had  thus  far  arisen  for  setting  forth  this  disbelief;  nor, 
in  the  absence  of  encouragement  derived  from  finding 
doubt  in  others,  should  I  have  thought  myself  warranted  in 
expressing  it.  Distinguished  biologists  had  shown  their 
adherence  to  Prof.  Owen's  doctrine.  It  was  set  forth  and 
adopted  in  Carpenter's  Principles  of  Physiology  ;  and  the 
Archetype  and  Homologies  of  the  Vertebrate  Skeleton  was  in 
use  as  a  text  book  at  University  College.     Though  this 


^T.  38.]  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  25 

endorsement  did  not  canse  me  to  believe  j  yet  even  my 
independence  would  not  have  prompted  public  utterance 
of  dissent  had  nothing  happened.  But  during  the  spring, 
Prof.  Huxley,  in  his  Croonian  Lecture  before  the  Royal 
Society  on  "  The  Vertebrate  Structure  of  the  Skull," 
attacked  Prof.  Owen's  interpretation  of  it.  Hearing  this 
amount  of  disagreement  expressed,  I  was  encouraged  to 
take  up  the  general  theory;  and  in  June  arranged  with 
the  Editor  of  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Review  to  write  a 
criticism  on  the  several  works  in  which  Prof.  Owen  has 
embodied  it.  Had  the  question  been  one  of  knowledge,  I 
should  not  have  been  absurd  enough  to  criticize  a  naturalist 
so  profoundly  acquainted  with  the  facts;  but  it  was  a  question 
of  reasoning.  Setting  out  with  the  remark  that  "  judging 
whether  another  proves  his  position  is  a  widely  different 
thing  from  proving  your  own ;  "  the  first  paragraph  of  my 
article  ended  with  the  further  remark  that  "if  the  data 
put  before  him  do  not  bear  out  the  inference,  it  is  com- 
petent for  every  logical  reader  to  say  so."  Thus  taking 
Prof.  Owen's  various  statements  and  explanations  as  they 
stood,  the  purpose  was  to  show  that  they  involved  incon- 
gruities so  numerous  as  to  make  his  hypothesis  untenable. 
Though  the  doctrine  of  evolution  made  no  overt  appearance 
in  the  earlier  part  of  the  article,  it  came  out  at  the  close ; 
for  in  the  last  few  pages  an  endeavour  was  made  to  show 
how  the  genesis  of  the  vertebrate  skeleton  is  interpretable 
from  the  evolution  point  of  view. 

Six  weeks  of  Derby  proved  anything  but  beneficial. 
The  popular  notion  about  native  air  was  then,  as  on 
many  other  occasions,  disproved  in  my  own  case.  At  the 
end  of  August,  being  much  below  par,  I  joined  the  Letts 
at  Llandudno,  and  there  rapidly  improved.  The  salubrity 
of  the  place  and  the  many  pleasant  excursions  were  as 
causes  of  improvement,  aided  by  the  enlivening  society  of 
old  friends — the  only  society  I  much  care  about.  And 
here  I  am  prompted  to  remark  concerning  health,  that  not 


26  A  SYSTEM  PROJECTED.  [1858. 

by  people  at  large  only,  but  by  medical  men,  the  effects 
of  mental  influences  are  under-estimated.  The  exhilara- 
tion produced  by  novelty;  the  breaking  away  from  the 
monotonous  routine  of  daily  life  at  home ;  the  absence  of 
worrying  anxieties  and  the  presence  of  positive  gratifica- 
tions, are  usually  more  potent  causes  of  improvement  than 
are  differences  in  physical  circumstances.  Even  where 
change  of  scene  with  its  accompanying  increase  of  enjoy- 
ments and  decrease  of  annoyances,  is  excluded,  the  effects  of 
agreeable  emotions  are  often  surprising.  I  have  had  many 
experiences  of  the  fact  that  dyspepsia,  so  far  from  being 
necessarily  exacerbated  by  dining  out,  may  even  be  cured, 
notwithstanding  many  dietetic  imprudences,  if  the  social 
surroundings  are  such  as  to  yield  great  pleasure. 

After  three  weeks  at  Llandudno,  and  an  interval  at 
Derby,  I  returned  to  town  in  October;  and  again  took  up 
my  abode  at  13,  Loudoun  Road. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 
PLANS  FOR  EXECUTINa  IT. 

1858—59.    ^t.  38—39. 

I  HAD  left  London  before  the  end  of  June ;  and  it  was 
not  until  the  first  of  July  that  the  two  papers  by  Mr.  Darwin 
and  Mr.  Wallace  on  the  operation  of  Natural  Selection  in 
causing  divergence  of  species,  were  read  before  the  Linnaean 
Society.  I  have  but  a  vague  impression  of  the  way  in 
which  this  event  became  known  to  me;  but  my  belief  ia 
that  I  remained  in  ignorance  of  it  until  my  return  to  town 
in  October. 

A  reason  confirming  me  in  this  belief  is  furnished  by 
a  paragraph  contained  in  a  letter  to  my  mother  dated 
29  November,  which  runs  as  follows  : — "  I  have  been  dis- 
tributing a  few  volumes  of  my  Essays.  Enclosed  are  some 
of  the  acknowledgments,  from  Dr.  Latham,  Dr.  Hooker, 
and  Mr.  Charles  Darwin."  As  the  volume  had  been 
published  in  December,  1857,  I  was,  when  I  came  upon 
this  passage,  at  a  loss  to  understand  why  this  distribution 
had  not  been  made  until  November,  1858.  But  the  probable 
explanation  is  that,  when  I  learnt  the  nature  of  Mr. 
Darwin's  paper  and  learnt  that  Dr.  Hooker  accepted  his 
interpretation,  I  sent  copies  of  the  volume  to  them  and 
to  a  few  others,  because  of  the  essay  on  the  Development 
Hypothesis  contained  in  it.  The  following  is  Mr.  Darwin'a 
acknowledgment : — 


28  PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  [1858. 

No,  it  is  not  as  follows ;  for  on  consideration  I  decide  to 
omit  it.  Notwithstanding  tlie  compliments  it  contains, 
which  seemed  to  negative  publication,  I  was  about  to 
quote  it,  because  it  dispels,  more  effectually  than  anything 
else  can,  a  current  error  respecting  the  relation  between 
Mr.  Darwin's  views  and  my  own.  But  the  reproduction  of 
it  would  be  out  of  taste,  and  I  leave  the  error  to  be  other- 
wise corrected. 

Here  I  may  fitly  comment  on  certain  difficulties  which  I 
foresee  will  from  time  to  time  present  themselves — difficul- 
ties in  choosing  between  two  alternatives,  each  of  which  is 
objectionable.  If,  after  long  periods  of  non-success,  there 
came  to  an  autobiographer  incidents  implying  success,  and 
the  increased  appreciation  indicated,  mention  of  these 
cannot  be  omitted  without  partially  falsifying  the  narrative. 
On  the  other  hand,  as  they  reflect  some  kind  of  honour  on 
him,  the  mention  of  them  appears  indicative  of  vanity; 
though  it  may  result  from  a  desire  to  give  a  complete 
presentation,  or  from  the  feeling  that  against  the  debit 
items  of  the  account  it  is  but  fair  that  the  credit  items 
should  be  placed.  What,  then,  is  to  be  done  ?  At  first 
sight  it  seems  possible  for  one  who  narrates  his  own  life 
and  draws  his  own  portrait  to  be  quite  truthful;  but  it 
proves  to  be  impossible. 

There  are  various  media  which  distort  the  things  seen 
through  them,  and  an  autobiography  is  a  medium  which 
produces  some  irremediable  distortions. 

Immediately  on  my  return  to  town  I  proposed  to  the 
editor  of  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Review  to  write  an  essay 
on  "  The  Laws  of  Organic  Form "  for  publication  in 
January,  1859.  The  title  shows  that  the  essay  contained 
a  further  extension  of  evolutionary  views.  The  germinal 
idea  had  occurred  to  me  in  the  course  of  a  country  ramble 
with  Mr.  G.  H.  Lewes  in  the  autumn  of  1851. 

The   thesis  was   that  organic  forms  in  general,  vegetal 


,Et.  38.]        PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  29 

and  animal,  are  determined  "by  the  relations  of  tlie  parts 
to  incident  forces.  Eadial  symmetry,  bilateral  symmetry, 
and  asymmetry,  alike  in  stationary  and  moving  organisms, 
were  shown,  one  or  other  of  them,  to  become  established, 
according  as  the  parts  are  similarly  disposed  towards  the 
environment  all  round  an  axis,  or  similarly  disposed  on 
two  sides  of  an  axis,  or  not  similarly  disposed  on  any  side. 
The  explanation  given  was  that  here  the  necessities  entailed 
by  position  and  there  the  necessities  entailed  by  locomotion, 
entailed  likenesses  between  parts  which  were  conditioned  in 
like  ways.  This  general  interpretation  of  external  forms  was 
congruous  with  the  more  special  interpretation  of  internal 
forms  in  the  case  of  the  vertebrate  skeleton — an  interpreta- 
tion appended  to  the  critique  on  Prof.  Owen's  theory. 

A  systematized  and  elaborated  statement  of  the  hypo- 
thesis set  forth  in  this  essay,  was  in  later  years  incorporated 
in  Part  iv.  of  the  Principles  of  Biology. 

What  induced  me  to  take  up  the  subject,  I  cannot 
remember;  but  while  at  Derby  in  October,  I  collected 
some  materials  for  an  article  on  "  The  Morals  of  Trade," 
and,  continuing  my  inquiries  in  London,  began  writing  it 
as  soon  as  the  article  above  named  was  completed. 

This  was  one  of  the  few  exceptions  to  the  general  rule. 
Many  examples  have  made  it  clear  that  nearly  everything 
I  wrote  had  a  bearing,  direct  or  indirect,  on  the  doctrine 
of  evolution.  Here,  however,  there  appears  no  trace  of 
any  such  bearing ;  unless,  indeed,  it  be  in  the  tacit  recog- 
nition of  the  moral  modifiability  of  human  nature  and  the 
moral  adaptation  of  men  to  the  passing  social  state.  The 
article  took  for  its  especial  topic,  not  those  multitudinous 
small  dishonesties  which  characterize  retail  trade,  but 
those  larger  and  less  familiar  ones  which  vitiate  the  trans- 
actions of  manufacturers,  merchants,  and  wholesale  dealers. 
A  further  object  of  the  essay  was  to  show  that  the  dis- 
honesty of  the  classes  not  engaged  in  trade  is  proved  by 


30  PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  [1858. 

numerous  illustrations  to  be  as  great  in  degree  though 
different  in  kind.  And  yet  another  object  was  to  suggest 
that  a  remote  cause  for  such  dishonesties,  alike  of  traders 
and  others,  is  the  indiscriminate  admiration  given  to  what- 
ever implies  wealth. 

Originally  written  for  the  Quarterly  Review  but  not 
accepted  by  the  editor,  the  article  was  published  in  the  West- 
minster Review  for  April,  1859.  I  may  add,  as  a  curious 
incident,  that  many  years  afterwards  the  Rev.  Canon 
Lyttelton  applied  to  me  for  permission  to  republish  it 
in  a  pamphlet  along  with  a  sermon  of  his  own  on 
the  same  subject — a  permission  which  I  cheerfully  gave. 
That  an  ecclesiastic  should  take  a  step  which  coupled  his 
name  with  mine,  curiously  exemplified  the  spread  of  liberality 
in  religious  opinion. 

In  a  letter  to  my  father  dated  16  November,  1858,  there 
occurs  the  remark: — "The  arrangements  at  Malvern 
House  are  not  so  good  as  they  were.  The  number  is  much 
smaller — Mr.  Parry  and  myself  being  the  only  inmates  not 
of  the  family :"  inconvenient  changes  of  hours  being  also 
named.  And  then  a  letter  of  15  December  says  of  my 
hosts  that : — "  They  are  going  to  make  some  arrangements 
which  will  make  it  no  longer  convenient  to  have  me.  They 
express  great  regret  at  the  necessity  of  separation.  I,  too, 
am  sorry;  for  I  doubt  whether  I  shall  find  a  place  altogether 
as  suitable." 

Had  it  not  been  that  Mr.  Parry — the  old  gentleman 
I  have  referred  to  as  being  eighty  and  a  wit — had  also 
to  take  his  departure,  I  should  have  concluded  that  my 
host  had  been  prompted  by  the  wish  to  prevent  any 
further  influence  exercised  by  me  over  his  son  :  a  youth  of 
some  nineteen  or  twenty.  Not,  indeed,  that  I  had  knowingly 
exercised  such  influence ;  but  the  son  had  got  hold  of  my 
•books,  and  imbibed  from  them  ideas  of  a  kind  his  father 
did  not  approve.     Naturally  enough,  he  desired  to  prevent 


iET.  38.]         PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  31 

what  he  regarded  as  a  perversion ;  and  his  desire,  though 
clearly  not  the  sole  cause,  may  have  been  a  part  cause  for 
making  the  domestic  change  which  took  place. 

My  removal  was  long  postponed,  however;  for  my 
letters  continue  to  be  dated  from  13,  Loudoun  Road  up  to 
the  beginning  of  February ;  at  which  date,  having  failed 
to  find  a  desirable  habitat,  I  went  down  home  for  a 
few  weeks. 

During  the  latter  part  of  1858,  as  during  its  earlier  part, 
there  had  been  constantly  before  me  the  question — How 
to  carry  out  my  undertaking?  The  general  conception 
had  of  course  been  enlarging,  and  gaining  in  definiteness 
while  it  gained  in  fulness ;  and  I  was  growing  eager  to 
find  some  way  of  setting  it  forth  after  the  manner  sketched 
out  at  the  beginning  of  the  year.  The  difiiculties  in  the 
way  were  very  great.  What  little  property  had  come  to 
me  from  my  uncle  Thomas,  had  been  nearly  all  frittered 
away.  Partly  it  had  been  spent  in  the  publication  of 
books  which  were  not  simply  unremunerative,  but  entailed 
positive  losses.  And  of  what  had  not  thus  been  sunk,  most 
had  gone  in  costs  of  living  and  travelling  about  during  the 
eighteen  months  in  which  my  nervous  breakdown  had 
prevented  me  altogether  from  working.  As  may  be  in- 
ferred, when  these  drafts  upon  it  had  been  met,  not  very 
much  remained  of  the  legacy  of  £500  left  to  me  in  1853. 
During  the  period  described  in  the  last  two  chapters, 
I  was  able  to  work  at  the  best  only  three  hours  a  day,  and 
often  not  that ;  and  there  occasionally  came  relapses  which 
forced  me  to  leave  off  for  a  time  entirely.  To  these  facts 
must  be  added  the  further  one,  that  my  essays,  not  usually 
of  a  kind  to  be  written  off-hand,  but  involving  much  thought 
and  inquiry,  brought  me  but  small  returns.  The  articles 
for  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Review  were  paid  for  at  the  rate 
of  either  six  pounds  or  six  guineas  per  sheet  (sixteen 
pages)  ;  and  the  others  at  the  rate  of  ten  pounds  per  sheet. 


32  PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  [1858. 

Clearly  such  being  my  limited  capacity  for  work,  and  such 
being  the  remuneration  for  what  I  did,  it  was  not  easy  for 
me,  though  practising  every  economy,  to  meet  my  expenses. 

How  then  was  it  possible  to  execute  my  project — ^a 
project  sufficiently  extensive  and  onerous  even  for  one  in 
full  health  and  having  income  enough  to  maintain  him 
while  devoting  himself  to  non-paying  work.  What  to  do, 
was  a  question  frequently  occupying  my  not  very  hopeful 
thoughts,  and  was  a  question  sometimes  discussed  with 
friends.  One  of  the  schemes  I  entertained,  not  in  a  san- 
guine way  it  is  true,  shows  how  hardly  pressed  I  was 
to  find  some  plan.  Chapman,  when  the  Westminster 
Review  came  into  his  hands,  had  established  what  he  called 
an  "  Independent  Section  " — an  appended  portion  in  which 
was  published,  now  and  again,  a  paper  of  which  he  thought 
well,  though  he  did  not  wish  to  commit  the  Review  to  its 
conclusions.  My  proposal  was  that  I  should  write  instal- 
ments of  the  System  of  Philosophy,  or  at  any  rate  of  the 
first  volume,  to  be  published  in  this  independent  section — 
some  two  or  three  sheets  per  quarter  :  being  paid  for  them 
at  the  ordinary  rate.  Naturally  enough  Chapman  did  not 
think  favourably  of  this  proposal,  and  it  dropped  through. 
Wild  as  it  was,  however,  it  was  not  so  wild  as  one  made 
by  my  friend  Lewes.  Knowing  that  I  was  not  without 
mechanical  ingenuity,  and  that  I  had  years  before  profited  by 
an  appliance  I  had  registered,  he  suggested  that  I  should 
get  my  income  by  small  inventions,  and  devote  my  leisure 
time  to  the  work  !  I  remember  that  George  Eliot  joined 
me  in  laughter  at  this  amusing  proposal.  It  was  made 
by  one  who  little  knew  how  precarious  are  the  proceeds 
of  inventions,  and  how  frequently  inventors  reap  losses 
rather  than  gains. 

Thus  the  year  ended  without  disclosing  any  way  of 
doing  that  which  I  now  felt  to  bo  my  work  in  life. 

Before  leaving  town  as  above  indicated,  several  small 


i^T.  38.]         PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  33 

matters  of  interest  occurred,  as  shown  in  tlie  following 
extracts  from  a  letter  home,  written  on  January  10. 

"  I  have  agreed  with  Chapman  to  do  an  article  for  him  on  the  relative 
values  of  different  kinds  of  knowledge.  I  have  not  fixed  the  title  yet.  But 
its  chief  aim  is  to  go  in  for  more  science. 

"I  am  pretty  well — as  well  as  Xmas  excitements  allow.  But  I  should  be 
all  the  better  for  less  going  out. 

"The  matter  of  Chapman's  business  has  dropped  through.  It  would  not 
have  done  unless  I  had  devoted  all  my  time  to  it.  So  it  is  to  be  carried  on 
by  Chapman's  late  assistants — Birt  &  Fergusson. 

"I  shall  probably  leave  this  house  in  about  a  week.  I  am  going  to  take  an 
advertisement  to  the  Times  to-day. 

"I  will  send  you  the  new  number  of  the  Medico-Chi.  containing  my  article 
on  the  "  Laws  of  Organic  Form,"  shortly.    At  present  Lewes  has  it. 

"I  did  not  after  all  go  down  to  Hastings.  Sir  J.  Trelawney  and  his  family 
returned  to  town  sooner  than  was  expected. 

"The  Potters  are  in  town,  and  I  spent  Saturday  evening  with  them.  I  am 
to  go  and  see  them  in  the  spring." 

The  third  of  the  foregoing  paragraphs   recalls   a  fact 

which  I  had  completely  forgotten.     Chapman,  a  sanguine 

speculative  man,  who,   during  his  career  as  a  publisher, 

lasting  some  fourteen   or  fifteen  years,  had  been  losing 

money,  was   at  this   date  forced  to   retire  :    deciding,  at 

the   same  time,  to  resume  those    studies   in    preparation 

for  the  practice  of  medicine,  which  had  been  interrupted 

when  he  became    a   publisher.     Among   those  who    had 

assisted  him  with  loans   was  Mr.  Octavius  Smith;    and, 

judging  from  what  occurred,  he  had,  I  presume,  become 

the  chief  creditor.      Now-a-days  but  few  publishers  are 

alarmed   by   so-called    heterodox    opinions  in  the  books 

offered  to  them ;  but  at  that  time  Chapman  was  the  only 

respectable  publisher  through  whom  could  be  issued  books 

which   were    tacitly   or    avowedly   rationalistic.      Hence, 

being  broad-minded  and  anxious  that  the  spread  of  liberal 

opinion  should  not   be   hindered,  Mr.   Smith  wished  the 

business  to  be  carried  on.     Having,  as  it  seemed,  some 

confidence  in  my  judgment,  he  suggested  that  I  should 

undertake  to  superintend  it :   perhaps  thinking  that  after 

giving   it  due  attention,   I    should   have    sufiicient  leisure 

3 


84  PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  [1859. 

to  carry  out  the  undertaking  which  he  knew  I  had  at 
heart.  But  probably  I  saw  that,  difficult  as  it  is  even  for 
one  fully  disciplined  to  make  an  enterprise  of  such  a 
kind  answer  by  devoting  to  it  all  energies,  it  would  be 
impossible  to  make  it  answer  if  neither  of  those  conditions 
was  fulfilled. 

The  article  above  named  as  having  been  agreed  upon, 
which  was  eventually  entitled  "What  Knowledge  is  of  most 
worth  ? "  and  now  forms  the  first  chapter  in  the  little  work 
Education,  &c.,  was  commenced  either  just  before  my 
departure  for  Derby  or  shortly  afterwards.  I  recall  the 
date  because  of  an  important  incident  connected  with  it. 
Before  the  essay  was  half  done,  I  suffered  one  of  my  not 
infrequent  relapses,  and  had  to  suspend  work.  My  father 
was  at  the  time  much  troubled  by  the  interference  of  the 
Local  Sanitary  Board  with  property  of  his  in  Derby — 
some  thirteen  small  houses  which,  instead  of  being  im- 
proved by  alterations  on  which  the  authorities  insisted, 
had  been  so  much  damaged  that  some  of  his  tenants  left. 
Hence  he  contemplated  a  memorial  to  the  Town  Council, 
complaining  of  the  treatment  he  had  received.  He  was, 
however,  peculiar  in  the  respect  that  while  energetic  about 
small  things,  he  was  almost  paralyzed  by  things  of  moment. 
Anxious  that  the  proposed  memorial  should  be  written, 
knowing  that  if  left  to  himself  my  father  would  not  write 
it,  and  yet  feeling  that  my  own  state  of  brain  would  not 
allow  me  to  write  it  for  him,  I  said  that  if  he  would  be 
amanuensis  I  would  try  to  do  the  work  for  him  by  dic- 
tating. He  agreed;  and  the  experiment,  being  tried,  proved 
successful.  It  did  more — it  initiated  a  practice  which  I 
thereafter  adopted.  I  made  the  satisfactory  discovery 
that  my  head  would  bear  dictating  much  more  easily  than 
it  would  bear  writing ;  and  I  at  once  foresaw  that  this 
discovery  would  considerably  affect  my  future  course. 

On    my  return  to  town  in  March    I  settled  myself  at 


^T.  39.]        PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  35 

24,  Oakley  Square.  A  letter  dated  23rd  April  contains 
the  paragraph  : — "  I  have  got  an  amanuensis,  and  find  the 
dictation  answers.  I  do  fiilly  half  as  much  again  or  more, 
and  with  greater  ease." 

I  may  here  remark  that  from  the  beginning  I  never 
experienced  any  difficulty.  Friends  to  whom  I  afterwards 
recommended  dictation,  asserted  either  that  they  should 
not  be  able,  or  that  they  had  not  been  able,  to  collect  their 
thoughts  under  such  conditions.  One  of  them  who,  yield- 
ing to  my  repeated  exhortations,  tried  the  experiment,  told 
me  on  inquiry  that  it  had  failed.  On  asking  why,  he  said 
that  his  landlady,  not  having  succeeded  in  finding,  as  he 
requested,  a  youth  to  play  the  part  of  scribe,  suggested 
that  perhaps  her  daughter  might  serve.  He  accepted  the 
proposal ;  but,  on  making  a  trial,  confessed  that  he  found 
himself  thinking  much  more  about  the  girl  than  about 
his  work.  This,  it  seemed  to  me,  was  a  very  inadequate 
experience  on  which  to  found  a  generalization.  Avoiding 
a  distraction  of  this  kind,  I  was  but  little  impeded.  The 
disturbance  to  thought  produced  by  the  consciousness  that 
another  was  waiting  for  me,  though  I  think  I  felt  it  a 
little  at  first,  soon  became  inappreciable.  Did  not  the 
change  of  method  affect  my  style  ?  is  a  question  which 
will  be  asked.  Not  very  greatly  I  think.  After  this 
article,  of  which  the  first  half  had  been  written  and  the 
second  half  dictated,  was  published,  I  put  to  a  competent 
judge  of  composition  the  question  whether  he  could  decide 
where  the  transition  was  made.  He  was  unable  to  do  this ; 
and  remarked  only  that  he  thought  the  latter  part  of  the 
essay  was  more  declamatory — I  think  that  was  the  word — 
than  the  earlier  part.  Nevertheless  I  believe  the  practice 
of  dictating,  thereafter  followed,  did  injure  my  style.  The 
general  experience  is  that  diffuseness  results  when  the  pen 
is  held  by  another.  One  who,  when  writing  by  proxy, 
makes  it  a  point  to  keep  his  amanuensis  going,  is  obviously 
more  likely  to  use  a  defective  expression  than  when,  hold- 


36  PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  [1859. 

ing  the  pen  himself,  lie  has  no  external  incentive  to  abridge 
any  pause  he  makes  for  thinking.  Only  where,  as  in  my 
own  case,  there  is  acquired  the  habit  of  so  far  ignoring  the 
amanuensis  as  to  take  whatever  time  may  be  needed  for 
choosing  the  best  form  of  words,  is  the  effect  on  the  quality 
of  the  product  likely  to  be  small.  Still,  an  effect  is,  I  think, 
traceable.  It  has  been  remarked  to  me  more  than  once  that 
Social  Statics  is  better  written  than  my  later  books.  Though 
doubtless  a  good  deal  is  due  to  the  nature  of  subject — 
though  The  Study  of  Sociology,  akin  in  matter,  approaches 
more  nearly  in  manner  to  Social  Statics  than  any  other 
work  of  mine  ;  yet  there  remains  a  difference.  Social  Statics 
was,  I  remember,  characterized  as  epigrammatic ;  but  none 
of  my  later  books  could  be  rightly  thus  characterized. 

The  essay  "  What  Knowledge  is  of  most  worth?  "  refer- 
ence to  which  has  called  forth  these  parenthetic  remarks, 
was  published  in  the  Westminster  Review  for  July,  1859. 
Since  then,  the  claims  of  science  have  received  increasing 
recognition ;  but  when  this  essay  was  written,  its  leading 
thesis,  that  the  teaching  of  the  classics  should  give  place 
to  the  teaching  of  science,  was  regarded  by  nine  out  of  ten 
cultivated  people  as  simply  monstrous.  Even  now,  changed 
though  the  general  feeling  is,  more  space  for  science  is  but 
reluctantly  yielded ;  and  in  such  places  as  public  schools 
the  space  is  still  very  small.  To  one  who  never  received 
the  bias  given  by  the  established  course  of  culture,  and 
on  whom  the  authority  of  traditions  and  customs  weighs 
but  little,  the  state  of  opinion  about  the  matter  appears 
astounding.  To  think  that  after  these  thousands  of  years 
of  civilization,  the  prevailing  belief  should  still  be  that 
while  knowledge  of  his  own  nature,  bodily  and  mental,  and 
of  the  world  physical  and  social  in  which  he  has  to  live,  is 
of  no  moment  to  a  man,  it  is  of  great  moment  that  he 
should  master  the  languages  of  two  extinct  peoples  and 
become  familiar  with  their  legends,  battles,  and  super- 
stitions, as  well  as  the  achievements,  mostly  sanguinary,  of 
their  men,  and  the  crimes  of  their  gods  !    Two  local  groups 


^T.  39.]         PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  37 

of  facts  and  fictions,  filling  a  relatively  minute  space  in 
the  genesis  of  a  World  which  is  itself  but  an  infinitesimal 
part  of  the  Universe,  so  occupy  students  that  they  leave 
the  World  and  the  Universe  unstudied  !  Had  Greece  and 
Rome  never  existed,  human  life,  and  the  right  conduct  of 
it,  would  have  been  in  their  essentials  exactly  what  they  now 
are :  survival  or  death,  health  or  disease,  prosperity  or  adver- 
sity, happiness  or  misery,  would  have  been  just  in  the  same 
ways  determined  by  the  adjustment  or  non-adjustment 
of  actions  to  requirements.  And  yet  knowledge  subserving 
the  adjustment  which  so  profoundly  concerns  men  from 
hour  to  hour,  is  contemptuously  neglected ;  while  the  best 
preparation  for  complete  living  is  supposed  to  be  familiarity 
with  the  words  and  thoughts,  successes  and  disasters,  follies, 
vices,  and  atrocities,  of  two  peoples  whose  intelligence  was 
certainly  not  above  ours,  whose  moral  standard  was  unques- 
tionably lower,  and  whose  acquaintance  with  the  nature  of 
things,  internal  and  external,  was  relatively  small.  Still  more 
when  from  the  value  of  knowledge  for  guidance  we  pass  to 
the  value  it  has  for  general  illumination,  may  we  con- 
tinue to  marvel  at  the  perversity  with  which,  generation 
after  generation,  students  spend  their  years  over  the  errors 
of  ancient  speculators  who  had  no  adequate  data  for  their 
reasonings,  while  all  that  modern  science,  having  for 
materials  the  accumulated  and  generalized  observations  of 
centuries,  can  tell  respecting  ourselves  and  our  surroundings, 
they  ignore  ;  or  if  they  glance  at  it,  do  so  at  leisure  hours 
as  at  something  relatively  unimportant.  In  times  to  come 
this  condition  of  opinion  will  be  instanced  as  one  of  the 
strange  aberrations  through  which  Humanity  has  passed. 

Concerning  this  article  I  may  add  that,  while  it  had  no 
direct  bearing  on  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  its  insistence  on 
comprehensive  scientific  culture,  was  an  insistence  on  the 
acquisition  of  that  knowledge  from  which  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  is  an  eventual  outcome. 

Sometime  during  this  spring  occurred  an  incident  which 


38  PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  [1859. 

I  may  name  partly  for  its  intrinsic  interest,  and  partly 
as  a  lesson. 

Already  I  have  mentioned  tlie  fact  that,  while  yet  the 
first  of  the  Scenes  of  Clerical  Life  was  but  partly  written,  I 
was  told  by  George  Eliot,  on  whom  I  had  frequently  urged 
the  writing  of  fiction,  that  she  had  commenced ;  and,  as  I 
think  I  have  said,  I  was  for  some  time  the  sole  possessor  of 
the  secret.  Of  course  curiosity  concerning  the  authorship 
of  these  stories  accompanied  the  interest  in  them;  and 
amusement  was  afforded  me  by  the  speculations  I  heard 
ventured — in  some  cases  by  her  friends.  After  the  publi- 
cation of  Adam  Bede  the  curiosity  became  greater  and  the 
speculation  more  rife ;  and  it  was  by-and-by  guessed  that 
she  was  the  anonymous  author.  Chapman,  knowing  that  if 
anyone  knew  I  did,  one  day  suddenly  addressed  me — ''  By 
the  way,  Mrs.  Dunn  told  me  the  other  night  that  Miss 
Evans  is  the  author  of  Adam  Bede  :  is  it  true  ?  "  "  Mrs. 
Dunn!"  I  replied;  "who  told  Mrs.  Dunn  any  such  thing?" 
"Oh,  that  she  didn't  say."  "I  do  not  see  how  Mrs.  Dunn 
should  know  anything  about  it;  she  can  have  no  means  of 
learning."  Thus  I  fenced  as  well  as  I  could,  but  all  to  no 
purpose.  Chapman  soon  returned  to  the  question — "  Is  it 
true  ? "  To  this  question  I  made  no  answer ;  and  of 
course  my  silence  amounted  to  an  admission. 

When  next  I  went  over  to  Wandsworth,  I  told  them 
what  had  occurred,  and  was  blamed  for  not  giving  a 
denial :  the  case  of  Scott  being  named  as  justifying  such  a 
course.  Leaving  aside  the  ethical  question,  however,  a 
denial  from  me  would  have  been  futile.  The  truth  would 
have  been  betrayed  by  my  manner,  if  not  otherwise.  I 
have  so  little  control  over  my  features  that  a  vocal  "  No  " 
would  have  been  inevitably  accompanied  by  a  facial  ''  Yes." 

The  lesson  which  the  incident  teaches  is  that  a  secret 
cannot  safely  be  committed  even  to  one  in  whom  perfect 
confidence  may  be  reposed.  For,  as  we  see,  scrupulous 
faith  will  not   alwa,y3  prevent   unintended  disclosure.      I 


^T.  39.]        PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  39 

may  add  that  fortunately  no  tarm  was  done.  Tlie  secret 
was  leaking  outj  and,  moreover,  the  reason  for  keeping 
the  secret  had  no  longer  much  weight. 

When  thinking  about  ways  of  prosecuting  my  scheme, 
there  sometimes  arose  the  question — Is  there  any  post 
under  Grovernment  which  I  might  consistently  accept,  and 
which  would  give  me  the  needful  leisure  ?  Of  course  most 
of  the  offices  which  might  else  have  served  were  unavailable 
by  one  holding  the  views  I  did,  and  still  do,  concerning  the 
limitations  of  State-functions.  An  inspectorship  of  prisons 
occurred  to  me  as  a  position  which  might  be  filled  without 
any  dereliction  of  principle ;  since  maintenance  of  order  is  a 
State-function  which  I  have  ever  insisted  upon  as  essential. 
It  was,  however,  a  foolish  hope  that  such  an  office  would, 
after  I  had  discharged  its  duties,  leave  me  any  time  for 
writing.  But  my  mood  was  that  of  the  drowning  man 
who  catches  at  a  straw. 

There  is  proof  that  the  thought  of  obtaining  some  post  of 
this  kind  had  been  entertained  towards  the  close  of  the 
preceding  year.  Then,  and  during  subsequent  months, 
I  obtained  testimonials  from  sundry  leading  men.  Among 
them  were  Mill,  Huxley,  Tyndall,  Grote,  Hooker,  Fraser, 
Sir  Henry  Holland,  and  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis.  Several  were 
strongly  expressed ;  and  especially  those  of  Mill,  Huxley, 
and  Tyndall. 

Of  all  posts  likely  to  answer  my  purpose,  that  of  stamp- 
distributor  was  the  most  promising.  It  is  one  of  which  the 
duties  are  in  large  measure  mechanical  and  can  be  to  a 
considerable  extent  performed  by  a  subordinate.  Either  at 
the  close  of  1858  or  in  the  spring  of  1859,  the  stamp- 
distributorship  for  Derby  fell  vacant,  and  I  made  an  effort 
to  obtain  it.  Lord  Derby  was  then  Prime  Minister;  and 
Lord  Stanley  (the  present  Lord  Derby)  was  Secretary  of 
State  for  India.  He  had  read  some  of  my  books  ;  and,  as 
I  knew  from  the  editor  of  the  Westminster,  had  expressed 


40  PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  [1859. 

approval  of  some  of  my  articles.  Hence  I  hoped  something 
from  his  friendly  intervention :  the  appointment  of  an 
impecunious  author  to  such  a  place  being  not  without 
precedent.  The  claims  of  party  proved  too  strong,  how- 
ever. The  place  was  given  to  the  editor  of  a  provincial 
Conservative  paper  who  had  been  useful  in  his  locality. 

A  letter  from  Hooker  written  at  the  time  proves  to  me 
a  fact  which  I  had  absolutely  forgotten — namely,  that  I 
had  thought  of  a  foreign  consulship  as  a  post  which 
might  possibly  give  me  adequate  leisure.  This  was  a 
very  erroneous  supposition.  Hooker  told  me. 

What  was  my  daily  life  during  this  period  ?  The 
question  is  one  I  cannot  answer  more  definitely  than  by 
saying  that,  after  a  walk  of  half-an-hour  or  so,  the  morning 
was  devoted  to  work — or  as  much  of  the  morning  as  the 
state  of  my  head  would  allow;  and  that  during  the  rest 
of  the  day  I  had  to  kill  time  as  best  I  might.  I  suppose 
I  walked  a  good  deal  in  the  afternoon ;  and  did  much 
of  my  thinking  while  walking — a  habit  which  was,  and 
has  since  been,  physically  injurious,  however  much  other- 
wise beneficial.  A  story  I  have  told  of  myself  as  a 
boy,  shows  how  apt  I  was  to  become  mentally  absorbed 
at  an  early  age;  and  in  later  life,  states  of  absorption, 
different  as  were  the  subjects  of  thought,  were  scarcely 
less  marked.  I  once  discovered  to  my  dismay  that  I 
sometimes  passed  those  living  in  the  same  house  with 
me,  and,  though  I  looked  them  in  the  face,  remained 
unconscious  that  I  had  seen  them. 

It  is  clear,  however,  from  letters,  that  my  social  circle 
was  extending.  Beyond  mention  of  engagements  to  friends 
already  named  there  are  occasionally  such  passages  as  :  — 

"  I  dined  yesterday  in  company  with  Mr.  Roebuck,  his  wife  and  daughter, 
and  some  other  notabiUties."  [One  of  the  said  notabilities  was,  I 
remember,  the  late  Mr.  Charles  Austen].  "  Sir  J.  Trelawney  has  invited  me 
to  go  yachting  with  him  for  a  few  days."     "  I  dined  in   company  with 


Mt.  39.]         PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  41 

Tyndall  on  Wednesday.  He  gave  ns  an  p.ccount  of  his  night  on  the  top  of 
M.  Blanc."  ..."  Dr.  Arnott  called  on  me  yesterday  and  stayed  an  hour." 
[Dr.  Arnott,  at  that  time  well  known  by  his  Elements  of  Physics,  liked  the 
article  "  What  Knowledge  is  of  most  worth,"  and  had  obtained  my  address 
from  the  editor  of  the  Westmimter.']  ..."  I  am  going  to  Dr.  Carpenter's 
to-night,  to  meet  Mr.  Morell." 

Dr.  Morellj  known  at  that  time  by  his  book  on  The  Recent 
Philosophy  of  Europe,  has  long  resided  in  Capri,  and  has 
dropped  out  of  public  thought.  During  dinner  a  story  was 
told  about  some  eccentric  member  of  the  Carpenter  family, 
who  had  adopted  a  boy  with  a  view  to  carrying  out  his  own 
ideas  of  a  good  education.  He  shortly  found  that  the 
undertaking  was  more  onerous  than  he  expected,  and 
thereupon  cast  about  for  a  wife :  giving  one  whom  he 
found  to  understand  that  the  rearing  of  the  boy  was  to 
be  considered  the  primary  purpose  of  the  marriage.  Dr. 
MorelFs  comment  was — "Ah,  I  see  :  Rule  of  Three  inverse." 

Of  amusements  in  those  days  there  is  but  little  to  say. 
Now  that  operas  were  no  longer  free  to  me,  I  never  went — 
the  cost  was  too  great ;  and  I  but  rarely  saw  a  play. 
Occasionally  some  music  was  heard  during  the  seasons 
when  there  were  going  on  the  promenade  concerts, 
which  were  at  that  time  conducted  by  their  promoter, 
JuUien.  Especially  on  what  were  announced  as  classical 
nights  did  I  go.  Even  then  there  was  often  a  good  deal 
which  I  rather  tolerated  than  enjoyed — ^much  that  seemed 
to  me  manufacture  rather  than  inspiration.  A  friend  of 
mine,  Pigott,  said  of  orchestral  music,  that  when  from  any 
one  instrument  there  came  something  worth  listening  to, 
all  the  other  instruments  forthwith  entered  into  a  con- 
spiracy to  put  it  down ;  and  though  his  remark  ignored  too 
much  the  larger  effects  of  orchestral  combinations,  it  pointed 
to  the  fact  that  most  orchestral  combinations  are  not 
sufficiently  coherent.  Ballads  had  ceased  to  give  me  the 
pleasure  which  they  did  in  the  early  days ;  but  above  all 
I  was,  and  am  still,  intolerant  of  such  solos  as  were  per- 
formed by  Sivori  and  other  celebrities  of  the  kind — mere 


42  PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  [1859. 

displays  of  executive  skill.     When  I  go  to  a  concert,  I  do 
not  go  to  hear  gymnastics  on  the  violin. 

I  may  remark  in  passing  that  the  applause  given  to 
such  performances  well  illustrates  the  vitiation  of  opinion. 
Usually  after  a  display  of  wonderful  mechanical  dexterity 
by  an  instrumentalist,  the  members  of  the  orchestra  applaud. 
Observing  this,  many  of  the  audience,  thinking  these  culti- 
vated musicians  must  be  the  best  judges,  applaud  loudly  ; 
and  the  rest  of  the  audience  join  in  the  applause,  lest  they 
should  be  thought  persons  of  no  taste  :  the  truth  being  that 
the  brother  instrumentalists  applaud,  not  the  music  pro- 
duced, but  the  triumph  over  difl&culties.  And  thus  the  mass 
of  hearers,  following  authority  as  they  suppose,  are  led  to 
accept  as  music  what  is  in  fact  the  murder  of  music.  In 
this  case,  as  in  multitudinous  other  cases,  every  one  says  and 
does  what  every  one  else  says  and  does — ^lacking  courage  to 
do  otherwise ;  and  so  helps  to  generate  or  to  maintain  a 
sham  opinion.  Considering  that  the  ordinary  citizen  has  no 
excess  of  individuality  to  boast  of,  it  seems  strange  that  he 
should  be  so  anxious  to  hide  what  little  he  has. 

Early  in  May,  1859,  I  left  town  for  Gloucestershire  to 
spend  ten  days  at  Standish.  It  must,  I  think,  have  been 
on  this  occasion  that  I  initiated  my  little  friends  there — a 
troop  of  children,  all  girls,  whom  I  had  severally  seen 
grow  up  from  infancy — in  Natural  History,  by  establishing 
an  aquarium  and  giving  them  lessons  in  the  use  of  the 
microscope.  Hitherto  our  afternoon  walks  had  been  walks 
simply;  but  now  they  became  expeditions  in  search  of 
interesting  objects.  My  visits  being  the  occasions  for 
rambles  further  afield  and  less  restrained  than  those  taken 
in  charge  of  a  governess,  were,  I  believe,  looked  forward 
to  as  bringing  extended  liberties  and  more  varied  amuse- 
ments. The  pleasurable  associations  thus  established  in 
early  days  affected  our  relations  throughout  our  after  lives. 

Returning  to  town  for  a  few  days  only,  I  left  for  Derby 


^T.  39.]        PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  43 

some  time  before  the  end  of  tlie  montli,  and  there  recom- 
menced work.  The  lives  and  deaths  of  periodicals  would 
form  a  good  topic  for  an  essayist.  Annually  a  considerable 
number  are  born^  and  annually  a  considerable  number  die, 
— ^now  scarcely  surviving  infancy,  now  killed  by  starvation 
in  middle  life,  and  now  coming  to  an  end  in  old  age  in 
consequence  of  that  increasing  rigidity  which  will  not 
allow  of  adaptation  to  new  conditions.  Out  of  the  periodi- 
cals to  which  I  have  contributed,  I  can  count  up  ten 
newspapers,  magazines,  and  quarterhes,  which  have  thus 
disappeared.  One  of  them  was  the  Universal  Review,  a  then 
recently  established  organ  of  opinion  for  which  I  had  been 
asked  to  write  an  article.  It  was  one  of  those  which  die  early ; 
but  it  survived  long  enough  to  publish  the  essay  on  "  Illogical 
Geology"  which  I  had  undertaken  for  it.  This  was  written, 
or  rather  dictated,  during  a  six  weeks'  sojourn  at  Derby. 

The  topic  was  one  which  gave  occasion  for  expressing 
evolutionary  ideas  in  a  new  direction ;  and  I  presume  that 
the  consciousness  of  this  was  dominant  with  me  when  I 
undertook  the  subject.  There  were  the  changes  of  the 
Earth's  crust  itself  to  be  considered  from  a  developmental 
point  of  view,  as  well  as  the  changes  of  the  past  life  on  its 
surface.  As  originally  proposed,  the  article  was  to  have 
been  a  review  of  the  works  of  Hugh  Miller;  but  these 
eventually  became  simply  the  text  for  a  discussion  of  what 
seemed  to  me  the  errors  of  orthodox  geology,  as  exemplified 
in  them  as  well  as  in  the  works  of  Murchison  and  Lyell. 
The  title  "Illogical  Geology"  sufficiently  shows  that  the 
article  called  in  question  the  legitimacy  of  current  conclu- 
sions, considered  as  following  from  the  evidence  assigned. 
No  more  in  this  case  than  in  the  case  of  Prof.  Owen's 
theory,  should  I  have  ventured  to  express  dissent  concern- 
ing matters  of  fact ;  but,  accepting  the  facts  as  stated,  an 
outsider  was  not  unwarranted  in  considering  whether  the 
inferences  were  legitimately  drawn  from  them. 

The  assumption  made  by  some  that   strata  in  different 


44  PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  [1859. 

parts  of  tlie  Earth,  called  by  the  same  name,  were  contem- 
poraneous, and  the  more  defensible  assumption  made  by 
others,  that  if  not  single  strata  yet  systems  of  strata  were 
everywhere  contemporaneous,  were  shown  to  be  inconsis- 
tent with  various  of  the  admissions  and  assertions  else- 
where made.  The  dogma  then  accepted  by  geologists,  that 
certain  great  breaks  in  the  succession  of  organic  remains 
imply  almost  complete  destructions  of  living  things  and 
creations  of  new  floras  and  faunas,  was  contested;  and  it 
was  argued  that  the  acknowledged  course  of  geological 
changes  would,  along  with  small  breaks,  necessitate  these 
great  breaks.  Naturally  a  chief  aim  was  that  of  showing 
that  the  arguments  against  the  hypothesis  of  evolution 
which  Hugh  Miller  and  others  drew  from  palaeontology, 
were  fallacious.  But  I  was  candid  enough  to  admit  that 
while  geological  evidence  did  not  disprove  the  develop- 
ment hypothesis,  neither  did  it  prove  it :  contending  that 
the  most  we  can  expect  is  to  find  congruity  between  the 
h3rpothesis  and  the  evidence  yielded  by  comparatively 
recent  fossil  forms.  This  congruity  has  since  been  shown 
to  exist. 

In  those  years  and  after,  a  craving  for  the  mountains 
recurred  annvially ;  and  when,  along  with  satisfaction  of  it 
I  could  satisfy  a  craving  for  the  sea,  I  rejoiced  in  doing  so. 
Leaving  home  early  in  July,  I  took  the  coast  of  Cum- 
berland on  my  way  north;  settling  myself  for  a  week  or 
so  at  Drigg,  close  to  the  since-established  watering-place 
known  as  Sea-scales.  My  artist-friend  Deacon  joined  me 
there  with  his  two  boys.  A  walk  over  to  Wast-water  was 
one  of  our  excursions ;  and  there  was  a  subsequent 
migration  to  St.  Bees. 

A  change  of  ministry  had  occurred  in  June ;  and  Sir 
G.  C.  Lewis  had  become  Home  Secretary.  He  was  editor 
of  the  Edinburgh  Review  at  the  time  I  wrote  for  it  the 
article   on   "  Railway   Morals   and   Railway   Policy : "   an 


;Et.  39.]        PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  45 

interview  and  some  correspondence  having  been  thereby 
occasioned.  Moreover  he  had  written  me  some  friendly 
criticisms  on  the  doctrine  set  forth  in  the  essay  on  "  Pro- 
gress :  its  Law  and  Cause."  So  that  I  was  not  without 
hope  that,  having  stamp-distributorships  in  his  gift,  I 
might  through  him  obtain  one,  and  thereby  be  enabled  to 
live  while  carrying  out  my  scheme.  Before  leaving  Derby 
I  had  forwarded  to  him  the  testimonials  above  named,  and 
while  at  Drigg  received  his  reply.  I  cannot  now  find  it ; 
but  I  remember  distinctly  enough  that  it  was  not  encou- 
raging— so  little  encouraging  in  fact  that  I  thereafter  gave 
up  all  hope. 

The  19th  of  July  found  me  at  Achranich,  the  highland 
paradise  of  my  kind  friends  with  whom  I  had  before  spent 
a  delightful  two  months,  and  with  whom  I  was  now  to 
spend  another  like  interval.  As  said  in  a  letter  home  on 
the  21st — "  Fishing,  riding,  driving,  walking,  talking  and 
laughing,  are  capital  stimuli,  and  have  given  me  two 
good  nights : "  a  sentence  I  quote  partly  to  indicate  the 
enjoyable  life,  and  partly  to  show  that  the  question  of 
more  or  less  sleep  still  remained  dominant.  I  must  add 
that  the  expression  "good  nights"  is  relative  only  in 
meaning ;  for  my  best  night  would,  by  any  one  in  health, 
be  called  a  bad  one. 

"  The  day  was  one  I  shall  never  forget,"  is  the  closing 
sentence  of  a  letter  written  during  the  last  week  of  my 
stay.  It  describes  "  the  most  charming  excursion  I  ever 
had."  This  was  an  excursion  by  boat  "  down  the  Sound 
of  Mull,  up  Loch  Sunart  and  Loch  Teachus ;  and  home  by 
land,"  which  I  name  not  so  much  for  its  own  sake,  though 
"  the  scenery  was  splendid  and  the  colouring  marvellous ;" 
as  because  in  our  party  of  twelve  there  were  several 
of  known  names.  One  was  Professor  Sellar,  whose  works 
on  Roman  Literature  are  of  high  repute;  another  was 
Miss  Oi'oss,  who  some  years  later  published  a  volume  of 
graceful  poems,  but,  marrying  and  dying  soon  afterwards, 


46  PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  [1859. 

did  not  fulfil  the  promise  then  made;  and  a  third  was 
Mr.  John  Cross,  who,  long  afterwards,  married  George 
Eliot  and  wrote  her  life.  Young  and  vivacious  as  were 
nearly  all  members  of  the  party,  and  elated  as  all  were 
by  sailing  over  a  sunny  sea  amid  islands  and  mountains 
made  gorgeous  by  the  autumn  colouring  of  trees,  bracken 
and  decaying  lichens,  the  occasion  united  a  variety  of 
pleasures  which  but  rarely  come  together;  so  that  I 
remember  saying  after  our  return  that  the  day  must  be 
marked  not  by  one  white  stone  but  by  many. 

Reaching  home  about  the  20th  September,  I  occupied 
myself  in  fulfilling  an  engagement  made  before  I  left 
town  in  the  spring.  A  letter  to  my  father  dated  29th 
April  contains  the  paragraph  : — "  Dr.  Sieveking  has  asked 
me  to  review  Bain's  new  book  '  The  Emotions  and  the 
Will '  for  the  Medico-Chirurgical ;  and  I  have  consented." 

This  review  I  undertook  mainly  because  of  the  connexion 
which  the  subject  had  with  the  general  question  of 
evolution.  Its  aim  was  to  show  that  the  phenomena 
presented  by  the  emotions  can  be  truly  understood  only 
from  the  evolution  point  of  view.  Bain  and  I  were  on 
terms,  if  not  exactly  of  friendship,  yet  of  friendly  acquain- 
tanceship; but  I  said  in  the  article  all  that  I  thought:  giving 
credit  at  the  same  time  that  I  expressed  dissent.  Some  of 
my  criticisms  touched  fundamentally  his  method  and  his 
general  conceptions ;  but  he,  in  a  way  unusual  with  authors, 
accepted  them  in  good  part.  Indeed  I  cannot  remember 
anyone,  known  to  me  either  directly  or  indirectly,  who  has 
maintained  an  attitude  so  purely  philosophical ;  and  in 
whom  the  interests  of  truth  have  so  greatly  predominated 
over  all  personal  interests.  In  after  years  we  became  more 
intimate  and  eventually  established  cordial  relations. 

Towards  the  end  of  October  I  returned  to  town  and 
again  took  up  my  abode  in  Oakley  Square.  Though  my 
letters    at  the   time   do   not   betray   discouragement,    yet 


Mt.  39.]        PLANS  FOR  EXECUTING  IT.  47 

I  can  scarcely  have  failed  to  feel  it ;  for  now,  after  the 
lapse  of  nearly  two  years,  I  seemed  no  nearer  to  the 
execution  of  my  project  than  on  the  day  when  it  first  took 
possession  of  me. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 
A  PLAN  FIXED  UPON. 

1859—60.    ^t.  39—40. 

The  closing  montlis  of  1859  were  occupied  in  fulfilling 
several  literary  engagements.  Masson,  my  acquaintance 
with  whom,  made  nearly  ten  years  before,  had  ripened  into 
a  friendship  which  has  since  continued  and  increased  in 
warmth,  was  at  that  time  Editor  of  Macmillan's  Magazine ^ 
then  recently  established.  He  asked  me  to  write  an  article 
for  him,  and  I  agreed  to  do  so.  I  had  also  arranged  to  write 
one  for  the  Westminster  on  "  The  Social  Organism,"  and 
one  for  the  British  Quarterly  on  "  Prison  Ethics." 

Most  readers  are,  I  suspect,  weary  of  the  analyses, 
made  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  bearings  of  succes- 
sive essays  on  the  general  doctrine  which  occupied  my 
mind ;  but  near  as  I  am  now  to  the  end  of  the  series, 
I  may  be  excused  for  continuing  them.  That  the  conception 
of  the  Social  Organism  is  an  evolutionary  one,  is  implied 
by  the  words ;  for  they  exclude  the  notion  of  manufacture 
or  artificial  arrangement,  while  they  imply  natural  develop- 
ment. Briefly  expressed  in  Social  Statics,  and  having 
grown  in  the  interval,  the  conception  was  now  to  be  set 
forth  in  an  elaborated  form.  The  leading  facts  insisted 
on  were,  that  a  social  organism  is  like  an  individual 
organism  in  these  essential  traits  : — that  it  grows;  that  while 
growing  it  becomes  more  complex;  that  while  becoming 
complex  its  parts  acquire  increasing  mutual  dependence; 
and  that  its  life  is  immense  in  length  compared  with  the 


^T.  39.J  A  PLAN  FIXED   UPON.  49 

lives  of  its  component  units.  It  was  pointed  out  that  in 
both  cases  there  is  increasing  integration  accompanied  by 
increasing  heterogeneity;  to  which  I  might  have  added 
increasing  definiteness,  had  my  ideas  at  that  time  been 
fully  matured.  The  article  appeared  in  January,  1860 ; 
and  some  attention  was  drawn  by  a  promulgation  of  ideas 
which  to  the  average  mind  seemed  simply  whimsical. 

The  essay  on  "  Prison  Ethics/'  written  at  this  time  but 
not  published  in  the  British  Quarterly  until  the  subsequent 
July,  though  not  evolutionary  in  aspect  was  evolutionary 
in  spirit.  Its  conclusions  were  based  on  the  laws  of  life, 
considered  first  in  themselves  and  then  as  conformed  to 
under  social  conditions.  The  right  of  society  to  coerce 
the  criminal  up  to  certain  limits  but  not  beyond  those 
limits,  was  a  deduction.  But  the  essentially  evolutionary 
characteristic  was  the  doctrine  that  not  only  the  ethically 
justifiable  treatment  but  the  treatment  alone  successful  in 
reforming  criminals,  is  that  of  insisting  on  self-maintenance 
while  they  are  under  restraint — ^keeping  them  subject  to 
those  requirements  of  social  life  which  they  have  not  con- 
formed to.  The  thesis  defended  was  that  with  criminals, 
as  with  all  living  beings,  there  will  go  on  adaptation  to  cir- 
cumstances if  they  are  forced  to  live  under  those  circum- 
stances :  a  corollary  from  the  doctrine  of  organic  evolution. 

The  brief  paper  on  the  "Physiology  of  Laughter"  which 
I  wrote  for  Macmillan's  Magazine,  also  participated,  though 
not  conspicuously,  in  the  family  traits.  It  was  evolutionary 
as  being  an  explanation  of  laughter  in  terms  of  those 
nervo-muscular  actions  which  are  displayed  everywhere 
throughout  the  animal  kingdom  from  moment  to  moment; 
and  especially  as  using  for  a  key  the  law  that  motion 
follows  the  line  of  least  resistance — a  law  previously 
recognized  as  one  needful  to  be  taken  account  of  in  the 
interpretation  of  evolutionary  processes. 

While  these  articles  were  in  hand,  the  Origin   of  Species 

4 


50  A  PLAN  FIXED  UPON.  [1859. 

was  pulslislied.  That  reading  it  gave  me  great  satisfaction 
may  be  safely  inferred.  Whether  there  was  any  set-off  to 
this  great  satisfaction,  I  cannot  now  say ;  for  I  have  quite 
forgotten  the  ideas  and  feelings  I  had.  Up  to  that 
time,  or  rather  up  to  the  time  at  which  the  papers 
by  Mr.  Darwin  and  Mr.  Wallace,  read  before  the  Linnaean 
Society,  had  become  known  to  me,  I  held  that  the  sole 
cause  of  organic  evolution  is  the  inheritance  of  func- 
tionally-produced modifications.  The  Origin  of  Species 
made  it  clear  to  me  that  I  was  wrong;  and  that  the 
larger  part  of  the  facts  cannot  be  due  to  any  such 
cause.  Whether  proof  that  what  I  had  supposed  to  be 
the  sole  cause,  oould  be  at  best  but  a  part  cause,  gave 
me  any  annoyance,  I  cannot  remember;  nor  can  I  remember 
whether  I  was  vexed  by  the  thought  that  in  1852  I  had 
failed  to  carry  further  the  idea  then  expressed,  that  among 
human  beings  the  survival  of  those  who  are  the  select  of 
their  generation  is  a  cause  of  development.  But  I  doubt 
not  that  any  such  feelings,  if  they  arose,  were  overwhelmed 
in  the  gratification  I  felt  at  seeing  the  theory  of  organic 
evolution  justified.  To  have  the  theory  of  organic  evolution 
justified,  was  of  course  to  get  further  support  for  that 
theory  of  evolution  at  large  with  which,  as  we  have  seen,  all 
my  conceptions  were  bound  up.  Believing  as  I  did,  too, 
that  right  guidance,  individual  and  social,  depends  on 
acceptance  of  evolutionary  views  of  mind  and  of  society, 
I  was  hopeful  that  its  effects  would  presently  be  seen  on 
educational  methods,  political  opinions,  and  men's  ideas 
about  human  life. 

Obviously  these  hopes  that  beneficial  results  would 
presently  be  wrought,  were  too  sanguine.  My  confidence 
in  the  rationality  of  mankind  was  much  greater  then  than 
it  is  now. 

In  a  letter  to  my  father  dated  January  20,  occurs  the 
sentence — "  I  shall  send  you  something  that  will  surprise 


Ml.  39.]  A  PLAN  FIXED  UPON.  61 

you  in  a  few  days.'*  This  sentence  referred  to  tlie  pro- 
gramme of  the  System  of  Philosophy,  then  in  type. 

During  the  autumn  of  1859  I  abandoned  all  thought  of 
obtaining  any  official  position  which  would  give  me  suffi- 
cient means  while  affording  me  a  share  of  leisure.  What 
then  was  I  to  do  ? — How  was  I  to  execute  my  project  ? 
Among  plans  despairingly  thought  over  there  occurred  to 
me  that  of  issuing  by  subscription.  Favourable  opinions 
were  expressed  by  friends  with  whom  I  discussed  it— 
among  others  by  the  Leweses.  George  Eliot's  diary  shows 
that  I  dined  with  them  at  "Wandsworth  on  November  19th ; 
and  I  have  a  tolerably  distinct  remembrance  that  we  then 
talked  the  matter  over.  The  earliest  impression  I  have 
of  the  programme  (which  is  marked  "  revise ")  is  dated 
simply  January  ,  1860 :  a  blank  for  the  day  of  the 
month  being  left  until  I  had  obtained  the  criticisms  of 
various  friends — Huxley,  Tyndall  and  others.  Along  with 
an  outline  of  the  proposed  series  of  works,  severally  divided 
into  their  component  parts,  and  each  part  briefly  described, 
the  programme  stated  the  method  of  issue  as  follows : — 

"It  is  proposed  to  publish  in  parts  of  from  five  to  six  sheets  octavo  (eighty 
to  ninety-six  pages).  These  parts  to  be  issued  quarterly ;  or  as  nearly  so  as 
is  found  possible.  The  price  per  part  to  be  half-a-crown ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
four  parts  yearly  issued  to  be  severally  delivered,  post  free,  to  all  annual 
subscribers  of  ten  shillings." 

A  long  delay  occurred  before  general  distribution  of  the 
programme.  An  authoritative  endorsement  was  needful; 
and  much  time  was  occupied  in  obtaining  weighty  names 
of  first  subscribers,  to  be  printed  on  the  back.  The 
cheerful  aid  of  friends  was  afforded  me — Huxley  being 
especially  helpful ;  and  in  the  course  of  some  six  weeks,  an 
imposing  list  was  got  together — the  chief  men  of  science,  a 
considerable  number  of  leading  men  of  letters,  and  a  few 
statesmen.  In  Appendix  A  will  be  found  a  reprint  ot 
this  programme;  and  with  it  these  names  of  sponsors. 
The  date  is  March  27,  1860. 

Comparison   of    it  with  the  rough    draft  drawn    up  in 

4* 


52  A  PLAN  FIXED  UPON.  [1860. 

January,  1858,  shows  that  while  the  ontline  of  the  scheme, 
in  so  far  as  the  component  works  are  concerned,  is  sub- 
stantially the  same ;  and  that  while,  between  the  delineated 
contents  of  each  volume  in  the  one  case  and  in  the  other, 
there  is  in  some  cases  a  correspondence  of  a  general  kind 
and  in  other  cases  an  approach  to  a  specific  correspondence ; 
there  is  an  amount  of  difference  showing  that  during  the 
intervening  two  years  the  conception  had  undergone  a 
marked  development.  Growth  of  the  series  from  seven 
volumes  to  ten,  had  resulted  from  expansion  of  the  Prin- 
ciples of  Biology  from  one  volume  to  two,  and  expansion  of 
the  Principles  of  Sociology  from  one  volume  to  three ;  while 
within  each  volume  the  divisions  had  multiplied,  and  there 
had  been  arrived  at  a  mode  of  dealing  with  each  subject  in 
a  systematic  manner  common  to  them  all. 

I  may  remark  here  that  though  during  these  t^wo  years 
there  had  thus  been  an  extensive  further  evolution  of  the 
original  conception,  the  evolution  which  subsequently  took 
place,  was  but  small.  On  comparing  the  volumes  as  sum- 
marized in  the  printed  programme,  with  the  volumes  as 
since  published,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  last  correspond 
with  the  first,  save  by  containing  some  relatively  small 
additions.  In  the  Principles  of  Psychology  there  has  been 
introduced  (but  not  until  the  edition  of  1880)  a  part 
entitled  "  Congruities  " ;  while  in  the  Principles  of  Sociology, 
beyond  a  change  in  the  order  of  two  of  the  divisions,  there 
has  been  introduced  a  division  dealing  with  Domestic  In- 
stitutions ;  and  there  will,  if  I  live  to  complete  the  second 
volume,  be  introduced  a  division  dealing  with  Professional 
Institutions. 

The  plan  succeeded  fairly  well.  Thanks,  no  doubt,  to  the 
influential  names  attached  to  the  circular,  the  issue  of  it 
was  followed  by  numerous  responses.  In  the  course  of  the 
spring  there  came  in  between  three  and  four  hundred  names 
of  subscribers  :  the  number  finally  reached  being  over  440. 


iET.  39.]  A  PLAN  FIXED  UPON.  63 

Assuming  my  ability  to  write  four  numbers  per  annum,  and 
supposing  that  all  the  subscribers  paid  their  subscriptions 
(which  a  considerable  proportion  in  such  cases  never  do) 
the  gross  proceeds  would  have  been  some  £200  a  year. 
From  this,  however,  had  to  be  deducted  the  costs  of  print- 
ing, binding,  and  issuing ;  which  would  have  reduced  the 
proceeds  to  perhaps  £120  or  £130  a  year.  I  dare  say  I 
should  have  been  sanguine  enough  to  proceed  on  the 
strength  of  this  calculation,  even  had  no  addition  to  these 
proceeds  been  in  prospect.  But  there  was  an  addition 
in  prospect. 

Some  years  previously  I  had  made  the  acquaintance  of 
an  American  whose  sympathies  were  enlisted  on  my  behalf 
by  perusal  of  some  of  my  books  or  essays — Mr.  E.  A. 
Silsbee  of  Salem,  Mass.  While  yet  the  circular  was  in  its 
unfinished  state,  I  sent  to  him  a  copy,  accompanied  by  the 
inquiry  whether  he  thought  that  subscribers  might  be 
obtained  in  America.  His  reply,  dated  February  14,  held 
out  much  encouragement ;  and  a  letter  of  March  6,  written 
after  the  circular  had  been  sent  to  New  York,  contained 
a  sentence  the  significance  of  which  was  shown  by  subse- 
quent events.  The  sentence  runs — "  Mr.  Youmans,  a  very 
popular  and  intelligent  lecturer  on  scientific  subjects,  well 
known  by  his  works  on  Chemistry,  Physiology,  &c.,  entered 
with  great  enthusiasm  into  the  project."  Devoting  himself 
with  characteristic  vigour  to  the  furtherance  of  my  scheme, 
this  previously-unknown  friend  succeeded  in  obtaining  more 
than  two  hundred  subscribers. 

The  relation  thus  initiated  was  extremely  fortunate ;  for 
Prof.  Edward  L.  Youmans  was  of  all  Americans  I  have 
known  or  heard  of,  the  one  most  able  and  most  willing  to 
help  me.  Alike  intellectually  and  morally,  he  had  in  the 
highest  degrees  the  traits  conducive  to  success  in  diffusing 
the  doctrines  he  espoused ;  and  from  that  time  to  this  he  has 
devoted  his  life  mainly  to  spreading  throughout  the  United 
States  the  doctrine  of  evolution.    His  love  of  wide  generali- 


64  A  PLAN  FIXED  UPON.  [1860. 

zations  had  been  shown  years  before  in  lectures  on  such 
topics  as  the  correlation  of  the  physical  forces ;  and  from 
those  who  heard  him  I  have  gathered  that,  aided  by  his 
unusual  powers  of  exposition,  the  enthusiasm  which  con- 
templation of  the  larger  truths  of  science  produced  in  him, 
was  in  a  remarkable  degree  communicated  to  his  hearers. 
Such  larger  truths  I  have  on  many  occasions  observed  are 
those  which  he  quickly  seizes — ever  passing  at  once  through 
details  to  lay  hold  of  essentials ;  and  having  laid  hold  of 
them,  he  clearly  sets  them  forth  afresh  in  his  own  way  with 
added  illustrations.  But  it  is  morally  even  more  than 
intellectually  that  he  has  proved  himself  a  true  missionary 
of  advanced  ideas.  Extremely  energetic — so  energetic  that 
no  one  has  been  able  to  check  his  over-activity — he  has 
expended  all  his  powers  in  advancing  what  he  holds  to  be 
the  truth  ;  and  not  only  his  powers  but  his  means.  It  has 
proved  impossible  to  prevent  him  from  injuring  himself  in 
health  by  his  exertions;  and  it  has  proved  impossible  to 
make  him  pay  due  regard  to  his  personal  interests.  So 
that  towards  the  close  of  life  he  finds  himself  wrecked 
in  body  and  impoverished  in  estate  by  thirty  years  of 
devotion  to  high  ends.  Among  professed  worshippers 
of  humanity,  who  teach  that  human  welfare  should  be  the 
dominant  aim,  I  have  not  yet  heard  of  one  whose  sacri- 
fices on  behalf  of  humanity  will  bear  comparison  with  those 
of  my  friend. 

Returning  from  this  tribute  of  admiration,  it  remains 
only  to  say  that,  the  number  of  the  American  subscribers 
added  to  that  of  the  English  ones,  having  produced  a 
total  of  about  six  hundred,  my  hopes  appeared  to  be  justified, 
and  I  resolved  to  proceed. 

I  was  just  free  from  all  ties  to  periodicals.  The  last  of 
them  had  been  an  engagement  to  prepare  for  the  West- 
minster Review,  an  article  on  "  Parliamentary  Reform  :  the 


^T.  39.]  A  PLAN  FIXED  UPON.  65 

Dangers  and  the  Safeguards/*  which  was  published  in 
April.  Years  passed  before  I  interrupted  my  chief  work 
to  do  anything  more  in  the  way  of  essay-writing. 

I  may  fitly  say  a  few  words  about  this  article;  less 
because  of  its  evolutionary  bearings  than  because  of  the 
well-grounded  fears  expressed  in  it.  Not^  indeed,  that  it 
had  no  evolutionary  bearings.  Its  ultimate  thesis  that  "  as 
fast  as  representation  is  extended  the  sphere  of  govern- 
ment must  be  contracted/'  which  is  a  corollary  from  the 
thesis  upheld  some  years  before,  that  representative  govern- 
ment is  the  best  possible  for  the  administration  of  justice 
and  the  worst  possible  for  everything  else,  is  a  practical 
application  of  the  general  doctrine  that  social  progress  is 
accompanied,  and  should  be  accompanied,  by  increasing 
specialization  of  functions ;  and  this  is  an  evolutionary 
doctrine.  But  that  which  may  be  distinguished  as  the 
practical  part  of  the  article,  was  an  argument  showing  that 
unless  with  the  extension  of  political  power  there  went  such 
direct  imposition  of  public  burdens  as  caused  an  unceas- 
ing consciousness  of  the  way  in  which  public  expenditure 
weighs  upon  each,  there  would  be  an  injurious  increase  of 
governmental  interference  and  a  multiplication  of  govern- 
mental agencies.  And  it  was  contended  that  whereas  in 
the  past  the  superior  few  had  inequitably  used  their  power 
in  such  ways  as  indirectly  to  benefit  themselves  at  the  cost 
of  the  inferior  many ;  so  the  inferior  many,  becoming  pre- 
dominant, would  inequitably  use  their  power  in  such  ways 
as  indirectly  to  benefit  themselves  at  the  cost  of  the  superior 
few ;  such  superior  few  being  understood  to  include  not  the 
socially  superior  only  but  also  the  superior  among  those  of 
lower  status. 

Unhappily  this  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled, — fulfilled,  too, 
much  sooner  than  I  expected.  And  another  extension  of 
the  franchise  since  made,  so  great  as  entirely  to  destroy  the 
balance  of  powers  between  classes,  and  so  made  as  to  dis- 


56  A  PLAN  FIXED  UPON.  [1860. 

sociate  the  giving  of  votes  from  the  bearing  of  burdens, 
vyill  inevitably  be  followed  by  a  still  more  rapid  growth 
of  socialistic  legislation. 

I  was  now  just  forty ;  and  I  calculated  that  at  the  rate  of 
progress  specified  in  the  circular,  I  should  get  through  the 
undertaking  by  the  time  I  was  sixty.  It  would  have  been  a 
sanguine  anticipation  even  for  one  well  in  body  and  brain ; 
and  for  one  in  my  state  it  was  an  absurd  anticipation. 

Indeed  when  I  look  back  on  all  the  circumstances, — when 
I  recall  the  fact  that  at  my  best  I  could  work  only  three 
hours  daily, — when  I  remember  that  besides  having  not 
unfrequently  to  cut  short  my  mornings,  I  from  time  to  time 
had  a  serious  relapse;  I  am  obliged  to  admit  that  to  any 
unconcerned  bystander  my  project  must  have  seemed 
almost  insane.  To  think  that  an  amount  of  mental  exer- 
tion great  enough  to  tax  the  energies  of  one  in  full  health 
and  vigour,  and  at  his  ease  in  respect  of  means,  should  be 
undertaken  by  one  who,  having  only  precarious  resources, 
had  become  so  far  a  nervous  invalid  that  he  could  not  with 
any  certainty  count  upon  his  powers  from  one  twenty-four 
hours  to  another ! 

However,  as  the  result  has  proved,  the  apparently 
unreasonable  hope  was  entertained,  if  not  wisely,  still 
fortunately.  For  though  the  whole  of  the  project  has  not 
been  executed,  yet  the  larger  part  of  it  has. 


PART    IX. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

WEITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES. 

1860-62.    ^t.  40-42. 

Up  to  this  date  my  life  might  fitly  have  been  charac- 
terized as  miscellaneous.  Here  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
pause  a  moment  and  ask  whether  there  was  any  relation 
between  this  trait  of  it  and  the  course  subsequently  pursued. 

From  the  education  ordinarily  passed  through,  mine 
differed  by  its  comparative  variety;  and  while  lacking 
most  of  the  usual  linguistic  elements,  it  included  a  good 
deal  of  physical,  chemical,  and  biological  knowledge  not 
commonly  gained. 

Throughout  the  years  passed  in  civil  engineering  many 
phases  of  the  profession  occupied  me.  Beyond  plan- 
drawing  and  making  designs  of  various  kinds,  there  came 
surveying  and  levelling,  secretarial  business,  drafting  of 
contracts,  and  over-seeing  execution  of  them,  testing  of 
locomotives,  preparations  of  plans  and  sections  for  Parlia- 
ment, joined  with  superintendence  of  the  required  staff 
and  followed  by  attendance  on  Parliamentary  Committees. 
And  along  with  these  sundry  forms  of  engineering  activity, 
there  went  the  occasional  invention  of  appliances  and 
devising  of  methods. 

During  a  long  unengaged  interval,  inventing  and  experi- 
menting in  many  directions  filled  a  large  space.  Some 
time  was  given  to  drawing  and  modelling.  Geology  and 
Botany   had    shares     of    attention.        Several    speculative 


60  WRITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  [1860. 

scientific  papers  were  published.  The  province  of  Govern- 
ment was  thought  about  and  written  about.  And  a  period 
of  active  political  life  was  passed  through. 

After  entrance  upon  a  literary  career  there  came,  if  not 
variety  of  occupations,  yet  variety  of  subjects  treated. 
With  journalism  was  joined  the  writing  on  Political  Ethics ; 
and  political  ethics  presently  led  the  way  to  Psychology. 
Essays  at  that  time  and  afterwards  written,  ranged  so 
widely  that  they  look  extremely  incongruous  when 
bracketed;  as  instance — "Over  Legislation"  and  "Grace- 
fulness " ;  "  Population  "  and  "  Style  " ;  "  Manners  "  and 
"Development  of  Species  ";  "  Geology  "  and  "  Laughter"; 
"Banking"  and  "  Personal  Beauty";  "Trade  Morals"  and 
"  The  Nebular  Hypothesis  " ;  "  The  Genesis  of  Science  " 
and  "  Railway  Policy  " ;  "  The  Shapes  of  Organisms  "  and 
"  Parliamentary  Reform  " ;  "  The  Law  of  Progress  "  and 
"Types  of  Architecture";  "  The  Test  of  Truth"  and  "The 
Origin  of  Music  " ;  "  Prison  Discipline  "  and  "  The  Use 
of  Anthropomorphism,"  &c.,  &c. 

But  now  this  miscellaneousness  came  to  a  close,  and 
there  commenced  something  like  unity  of  occupation.  I 
say  something  like ;  for  though  the  topics  to  be  successively 
dealt  with  in  developing  the  Synthetic  Philosophy  were 
many  in  kind — showing  perhaps  in  this  way  the  influence 
of  the  preceding  life — yet  they  derived  coherence  from 
the  unity  of  conception  and  method  pursued  through- 
out; and  to  this  extent  the  life  became  constant  instead 
of  changeable. 

In  one  respect,  indeed,  the  unsettledness  continued ;  for, 
as  before,  so  for  some  years  after,  my  abode  was  variable. 
As  I  usually  spent  from  two  to  three  months  of  the  autumn 
away  from  London,  regard  for  economy  made  me  give  up 
whatever  place  I  occupied,  and  on  my  return  to  town  there 
was  generally  some  reason  why  it  seemed  well  to  advertise 
afresh  for  accommodation :  a  course  which  sometimes, 
though  not  always,  led  to  change  of  residence.     After  a 


JEt.  40.]       WEITING  FIBST  PRINCIPLES.  61 

short  absence  from  town  in  the  spring,  one  of  these  changes 
took  me  to  18  Torrington  Square,  Bloomsbury. 

Here  it  was  that  on  the  7th  of  May  1860,  I  began  my 
undertaking;  and  here  it  was  that  I  quickly  furnished 
justification  to  any  who  exclaimed  against  my  folly  in 
attempting  so  great  a  task  with  my  deranged  health. 

Already  in  April  the  extra  work  which,  during  the 
preceding  months,  had  been  entailed  by  the  floating  of  my 
project,  had  brought  on  a  relapse,  and  I  had  to  leave  town ; 
first  for  a  ramble  in  Surrey,  whence,  being  companionless, 
I  returned  in  two  days,  and  then  for  a  sojourn  in  Derby. 
And  now  having,  as  I  hoped,  got  again  into  working  order, 
and  made  a  satisfactory  commencement,  I  broke  down 
before  I  had  got  through  the  first  chapter.  A  letter  home 
of  the  21st  of  May  is  dated  Brighton,  where  I  had  mani- 
festly gone  to  recruit.  "  I  am  very  much  better,"  says  a 
note  written  from  London  on  the  26th,  and  which  con- 
tinues— "I  go  to  the  Potters  in  about  a  week,  and  shall 
doubtless  progress  there  still  further.  I  do  not  think, 
however,  that  it  will  be  prudent  to  work  hard  enough  to  get 
out  my  first  part  in  July."  Letters  written  from  Standish 
show  that  I  spent  about  ten  days  there.  On  the  13th  I 
departed  for  Llandudno,  to  join  my  friends  the  Lotts; 
and  I  continued  with  them  up  to  the  end  of  June.  Mean- 
while my  father  and  mother,  in  company  with  a  Derby 
friend,  had  betaken  themselves  to  my  father's  favourite 
spot,  Treport;  and  pressure,  to  which  I  eventually  yielded, 
was  put  upon  me  to  follow. 

At  Treport  I  resumed  work  to  a  small  extent.  One 
sunny  afternoon,  on  the  grassy  slope  which  runs  up  from 
the  town  to  the  cliffs,  might  have  been  seen  two  figures, 
one  writing  and  the  other  reclining  or  lounging.  They 
were  my  father  and  myself ;  and  the  explanation  was  that 
he  had  undertaken  to  play  the  part  of  amanuensis.  Indoors 
and  outdoors,  some  little  progress  was  made  in  this  way 


62  WEITING  FIRST  PRINGIPLES.  [1860. 

during  tie  first  week  in  July.  But  the  place  did  not  on 
this  occasion  suit  me;  for  the  reason,  I  believe,  that  whereas 
before  I  was  high  up  above  the  sea,  I  was  now  close  down 
upon  it.  The  result  was  that  on  the  11th  of  July  I 
returned  to  London. 

Something  like  my  ordinary  state  having  been  at  last 
regained,  I  wrote,  or  rather  dictated,  at  my  usual  rate;  that 
is,  for  three  hours  daily.  The  MS.  of  No.  1  of  my  serial 
was  completed,  partly  in  London  and  partly  in  Derby,  before 
the  middle  of  September. 

A  letter  of  the  19th  of  September  is  from  Achranich, 
where  I  had  at  that  date  been  for  a  few  days,  and  where  I 
had  now  another  delightful  sojourn  of  nearly  a  month. 

There  were  two  other  guests — Mr.  Arthur  Hugh 
Clough,  the  poet,  and  his  wife,  who  was  a  niece  of  Mr. 
Octavius  Smith.  The  Bothie  of  Toher-na-Vuolich  had  been 
lying  about  the  house  at  Achranich  during  my  previous 
visits.  I  had  already  seen  a  little  of  its  author  in  London, 
and  now  I  saw  a  good  deal  of  him.  Not,  indeed,  that  our 
intercourse  was  to  much  purpose  in  the  way  of  establishing 
an  intimacy.  He  was  a  very  reserved,  undemonstrative 
man,  who  usually  took  little  share  in  general  conversa- 
tion. His  face  had  a  weary  expression  which  seemed  to 
imply  either  chronic  physical  discomfort  or  chronic  mental 
depression — an  apparent  depression  which  suggested  the 
thought  that  he  was  oppressed  by  consciousness  of  the 
mystery  of  things.  Of  the  ideas  or  sentiments  he  uttered 
no  trace  remains  with  me.  One  thing  only  which  he  said 
do  I  remember;  and  this  was  a  story  concerning  an 
ancestor  of  his.  While  rambling  in  North  Derbyshire,  his 
father  or  grandfather — I  forget  which, — ^was  struck  by  the 
picturesqueness  of  a  gorge  down  which  tumbled  a  small 
stream.  Turning  to  a  man  who  was  at  hand,  he  inquired 
its  name.  "  Go  it  Clough  "  was  the  startling  reply.  The 
explanation  of  the  apparent  insult  was  that  the  stream  was 


Mt.  40.]       WEITING  FIBST  PRINCIPLES.  63 

named  "the  Goit/*  and  that  "clougli"  is  the  North 
Derbyshire  word  for  a  ravine. 

A  two  days'  excursion  of  the  whole  party,  family  and 
guests,  was  the  only  incident  which  broke  the  usual  routine 
of  out-door  sports  and  in-door  pleasures.  Some  dozen 
miles  or  so  of  mountain  road,  traversed  by  vehicles  and 
horses,  brought  us  to  Strontian  on  Loch  Sunart.  After 
a  night  spent  there,  a  drive  along  the  beautiful  shores  of 
the  loch,  and  then  over  the  intervening  country  till  we 
came  in  sight  of  Loch  Shiel,  was  followed  by  a  return  to 
the  shore  of  Loch  Sunart  at  Salen.  A  boat  down  the 
remainder  of  Loch  Sunart  and  up  Loch  Teachus,  brought 
us  back  nearly  to  the  boundary  of  the  estate  :  a  scramble 
in  the  dusk  over  the  intervening  moor,  a  moonlight  row 
along  Loch  Arienas,  and  a  drive  from  Acharn,  taking  us 
home.  The  excursion  was  not  so  delightful  as  that  of  the 
preceding  year,  but  it  has  left  vivid  memories. 

Reference  to  this  excursion  reminds  me  that  on  my 
return  I  found  waiting  for  me  a  packet  of  proofs ;  and  this 
recalls  a  typographical  error  contained  in  one  of  them. 
Most  authors  occasionally  have  droll  blunders  made  by 
printers,  and  one  such  occurred  in  these  early  proofs  of 
First  Principles.  Where  I  had  written — "the  daily  verifica- 
tion of  scientific  predictions,"  the  compositor  had  put — 
"  the  daily  versification  of  scientific  predictions." 

After  some  ten  days  spent  at  Derby  on  my  way,  I  reached 
London  again  on  the  22nd  of  October.  Number  1  of  my 
serial,  greatly  delayed  by  printing  and  postal  delinquencies, 
was  on  the  eve  of  issue — nearly  three  months  after  the  date 
I  had  originally  hoped. 

Little  work  was  done  before  I  again  left  town.  My  uncle 
William,  the  youngest  of  the  brotherhood,  whom  I  had 
found  unwell  on  my  return  from  Scotland  in  October, 
became  seriously  ill  in  November.  I  was  in  consequence 
called  down  to  Derby  and  remained  there  till  his  death, 


64  WRITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  [1860. 

which  occurred  before  the  close  of  the  month.  We  had 
always  been  on  amicable  terms  from  the  early  days  when, 
to  his  prompt  action,  I  owed  the  appointment  with  which 
my  engineering  life  commenced ;  and  though  at  issue  on 
religious  questions,  there  had  been  a  good  deal  of  sympathy 
between  us  in  our  conversations  on  general  topics.  But 
I  was  quite  unprepared  for  the  distribution  he  made 
of  his  property.  Appointing  me  sole  executor,  his  will, 
making  small  bequests  to  other  relatives,  left  to  me  the 
remainder  of  what  he  possessed,  subject  to  annuities  to  my 
father  and  to  an  old  servant.  I  believe  there  were  two 
motives  for  this  course.  An  eminently  friendly  man — 
so  much  so  that  he  was  habitually  appealed  to  by  sundry  of 
his  intimates  for  advice  and  help  in  their  affairs — he  was 
by  implication  always  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  relatives, 
and  ever  ready  to  aid.  But  in  proportion  to  the  warmth 
of  this  feeling  appeared  to  be  the  warmth  of  his  resent- 
ment when  offended;  and  his  resentment  was  persistent. 
Some  year  or  two  before  his  death  there  had  arisen  a 
family  difference  which  had,  I  believe,  much  to  do  with  the 
provisions  made  in  his  will.  My  father,  however,  was  of 
opinion  that  another  motive  was  dominant.  He  told  me 
that  his  brother  was  solicitous  for  the  credit  of  the  family, 
and  probably  thought  that  the  arrangement  he  made  would 
be  most  conducive  to  it. 

But  whatever  may  have  caused  this  distribution  of  his 
property,  not  many  months  elapsed  before  I  became  aware 
that  it  would  have  important  effects  on  my  career;  for 
experience  soon  proved  that  I  had  miscalculated  my 
resources.  While  my  scheme  was  still  only  in  contem- 
plation, I  was  told  by  a  competent  judge  that  there  would 
be  great  difficulty  in  getting  in  the  subscriptions ;  and  I 
quite  counted  upon  suffering  some  loss  from  non-payment. 
I  was  not,  and  never  had  been,  among  those  who  labour 
under  the  delusion  that  intellectual  culture  produces  moral 
elevation;  and  did  not  expect  to  find  that  those  who  took 


Ml.  40.]       WRITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  65 

in  my  serial  were  more  honest  than  uneducated  people.  The 
defaulters  were,  however,  more  numerous  than  I  expected. 
I  found  that  which  I  was  told  others  had  found  : — a  moiety- 
pay  promptly;  others  after  the  publishers  send  them  re- 
minders ;  not  a  few,  being  several  subscriptions  in  arrear, 
require  repeated  notices  from  the  publishers  before  they 
discharge  their  obligations;  and  a  considerable  class, 
deaf  to  all  representations,  never  pay  at  all  for  the  parts 
sent  to  them  year  after  year,  and  have  at  last  to  be 
struck  off  the  list.  Having  started  with  a  number  of 
subscribers  which  I  concluded  would  suffice  to  pay  costs 
of  printing  &c.  and  leave  a  moderate  return  (a  number 
which,  not  counting  Americans,  eventually  rose  to  430), 
I  was  unprepared  for  the  amount  of  loss  suffered. 

The  extent  of  these  defalcations  was  such  that  in  the 
absence  of  other  resources  I  should  have  had  to  stop 
before  the  completion  of  my  first  volume. 

The  end  of  1860  and  the  beginning  of  1861,  passed 
without  any  incident  calling  for  mention  beyond  an  illness 
of  my  father.  Being  a  nervous  subject,  he  regarded  this 
with  greater  alarm  than  it  called  for.  I  took  him  to 
Brighton,  and  stayed  with  him  there  a  good  deal  during 
parts  of  February  and  March ;  and  he  afterwards  passed 
some  time  with  me  in  London,  where  he  recovered. 

Notwithstanding  consequent  hindrances  to  my  work,  it 
progressed  satisfactorily ;  and,  escaping  nervous  relapses, 
I  managed  to  issue  Parts  II  and  III  at  tho  appointed 
times — intervals  of  three  months.  At  the  end  of  March, 
however,  my  head  gave  way  again  and  I  had  to  desist. 
Early  in  April  ten  days  were  spent  at  Standish,  with 
pleasure  and  doubtless  with  benefit,  after  which  I  went 
home  for  a  time.  I  was  not  wholly  idle  during  these  visits. 
I  had  decided  to  re-publish,  in  the  form  of  a  volume, 
the  four  articles  on  Education  which  had  originally  been 
contributed   to   the   Westminster,   the   North   British,  and 

5 


66  WRITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  [1861. 

the  British  Quarterly  Reviews.  The  revision  of  these 
articles,  commenced  before  leaving  town  and  finished 
while  at  Derby,  was  in  considerable  measure  carried  on 
out  of  doors.  I  rambled  into  the  country;  looked  out 
every  now  and  then  for  a  sheltered  or  sunny  bank  on 
which  to  recline  while  correcting  a  few  pages ;  eventually 
reached  some  village  where  a  country  inn  furnished  me 
with  a  meal ;  and  then,  after  a  rest,  returned  home. 

In  this  way  I  got  through  a  little  easy  work  which 
otherwise  would  have  been  impracticable ;  and  after  I 
completed  it,  returned  to  London. 

More  than  a  month  was  passed  there  before  I  was  able 
to  resume  the  writing  of  First  Principles;  and  then  the 
resumption  was  under  difiiculties,  as  is  shown  by  the 
following   paragraph  from   a  letter   to   my  father  dated 

London,  14  June,  1861. 

"  I  am  much  better  this  week  and  am  doing  some  work.  I  am  doing  it  in 
a  very  odd  way — uniting  dictating  and  rowing.  I  take  my  amanuensis  on 
the  Regent's  Park  water,  row  vigorously  for  5  minutes  and  dictate  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour ;  then  more  rowing  and  more  dictating  alternately.  It 
answers  capitally." 

Soon  afterwards  I  was  led  into  another  way  of  keeping 
off  cerebral  congestion.  Mr.  J.  F.  McLennan,  at  that  time 
little  known,  but  afterwards  well  known  as  the  author  of 
Primitive  Marriage,  &c.,  was  a  candidate  for  (I  think)  a 
professorship  at  Edinburgh,  and  wrote  to  me  for  a  testi- 
monial :  directing  my  attention  to  a  certain  article  of  his  in 
the  Encyclopsedia  Britannica  as  affording  me  a  means  of 
estimating  his  competence.  Remembering  the  disaster 
which  had  resulted  when  I  read  up  with  the  view  of 
writing  a  testimonial  for  Professor  Fraser,  I  declined, 
after  giving  my  reasons.  Mr.  McLennan  took  my  refusal 
in  good  part ;  and,  having  himself  suffered  somewhat  from 
an  overworked  brain,  recommended  to  me  racquets  as 
an  exercise.  Accepting  the  suggestion,  and  discovering 
an   open  racquet-court  at   The    Belvidere,   Pentonville,  I 


^T.  41.]       WEITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  67 

betook  myself  thither  with  my  amanuensis  every  morning, 
and  after  a  game  or  two  adjourned  to  an  adjacent  room 
where  I  dictated  awhile,  and  then,  before  head-symptoms 
set  in,  returned  to  the  court  for  another  game  or  two ;  and 
so  on  all  the  morning. 

Though  in  this  way  I  got  through  two  or  three 
paragraphs  daily  without  making  myself  worse,  I  failed  to 
get  better;  and  it  became  manifest  that  I  should  be  unable 
to  issue  my  next  part  at  the  appointed  date.  It  became 
manifest,  too,  that  working  against  time  would  never  do : 
the  endeavour  to  keep  to  fixed  intervals  must  be  abandoned. 
Accordingly  I  issued  a  notice  to  the  subscribers  stating 
that  the  next  number  would  not  appear  at  the  end  of  the 
three  months ;  and  stating,  further,  that  for  the  future  the 
successive  numbers  would  be  severally  issued  as  soon  as 
completed,  without  regard  to  dates. 

A  few  lines  to  my  mother,  dated  Oban,  July  9,  show 
that  I  was  unexpectedly  detained  there  by  the  delay  in 
the  arrival  of  my  friends,  who  had  again  kindly  invited 
me  to  visit  them.  Still  below  my  ordinary  state  of  health, 
and  yet  wishing  not  to  let  my  time  pass  wholly  without 
result,  I  sought  out  a  youth  of  some  eighteen  or  so, 
sufficiently  educated  to  serve  as  amanuensis,  and  when  the 
time  came  took  him  over  with  me  to  lodge  at  Loch  Aline, 
whence  he  came  to  me  daily.  A  letter  dated  28  July, 
written  to  my  father,  then  in  France,  says  : — 

"  I  have  been  at  Ardtornish  now  rather  more  than  a  week.  In  consequence 
of  the  Smiths  not  having  arrived,  to  my  great  dismay,  I  had  to  spend  a 
fortnight  in  Oban  and  the  neighbourhood.  This  did  me  harm,  as  soUtude 
always  does ;  and  I  have  in  consequence  not  been  well.  However  I  am 
better  now  than  I  have  been  ;  and  the  delightful  Hfe  here  will  doubtless  soon 
Bet  me  right.  I  have  got  a  decent  amanuensis  (this  being  Sunday  he  is  not 
available)  and  have  done  a  little  work.  .  .  .  The  writing  and  boating 
answers  very  well,  and  is  very  pleasant. 

"Our  weather  here  is  very  agreeable — above  the  average  of  Scotch  weather; 
and  the  scenery  is  charming.  All  day  long  there  is  some  beautiful  effect  on 
mountains  or  sea  to  look  at ;  and  the  sun-sets  are  magnificent. 

"1  have  set  up  three  aquaria,  which  give  great  interest ;  and  the  microscope 

5* 


68  WRITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES,  [1861. 

[one  which  I  had  bought  just  before  leaving  town]   also  is  a  source  of 
amusement.    The  dredge  is  now  made,  but  we  have  not  used  it.    The  coast 
is  very  rich,  and  I  expect  to  get  many  novelties.  .  .  . 
"I  went  out  fishing  the  evening  I  arrived,  and  caught  a  salmon  the  first 
thing.    Since  then  the  river  has  been  too  low." 

I  give  these  extracts  at  length  because  they  conveniently 
serve  to  introduce  some  explanations  and  comments.  The 
first  concerns  the  apparent  change  of  name  from  Achranich 
to  Ardtornish.  At  the  time  when  Mr.  Smith  bought 
the  estate  of  Achranich,  the  two  estates,  Acharn  and 
Ardtornish,  lying  on  either  side  of  it,  were  owned  by 
Mr.  Sellar  (father  of  the  present  Professor  Sellar  of 
Edinburgh,  Mr.  Alexander  Craig  Sellar,  m.p.,  and  other 
sons),  who  was  desirous  of  purchasing  Achranich  and 
uniting  the  three  estates.  He  hesitated  too  long,  hoping 
to  get  a  reduction  of  price,  and  Achranich  was  unawares 
bought  over  his  head,  to  his  great  disgust.  Some  years 
afterwards  his  death  brought  the  estates  of  Acharn  and 
Ardtornish  into  the  market;  and  after  considerable  delay 
they  were,  at  the  close  of  1860,  purchased  by  Mr.  Smith : 
the  three  united  estates  being  thereafter  known  as 
Ardtornish.  As  the  Ardtornish  house  (part  of  which,  as 
before  described,  is  visible  some  distance  behind  the  ruins 
of  the  castle)  was  more  convenient  than  the  old  house  at 
Achranich ;  and  as  the  new  house  was  still  in  course  of 
erection ;  it  was  decided  to  occupy  the  Ardtornish  house  till 
the  new  house  was  complete. 

It  was  to  the  views  from  the  Ardtornish  house  that  the 
expression  "  charming  scenery,"  used  above,  referred. 
Probably  I  was  thinking  of  a  certain  bright  morning  in 
August.  From  the  smoothly  shorn  lawn  with  its  flower  beds, 
I  was  looking  over  the  carefully  trimmed  hedge,  to  the 
mountains  on  the  other  side  of  the  Sound,  and  marking 
how  the  cultivated  beauty  of  the  one  served  as  a  foil  to  the 
wild  beauty  of  the  other,  when  there  came  to  me  through 
the  open  window  the  first  movement  from  one  of  Beethoven's 
finest    sonatas :    a    favourite   movement   which    has    since 


JEt.  41.]       WKITING  nnST  PRINCIPLES.  69 

never  failed  to  recall  the  scene.  But  there  is  a  still  more 
vivid  recollection  dating  back  to  one  of  the  evenings  of 
that  year.  The  western  part  of  the  Sound  of  Mull  trends 
a  good  deal  towards  the  north;  so  that  during  the  summer 
months  the  Sun  sets  over  the  hills  at  its  further  end.  On 
the  evening  in  question  the  gorgeous  colours  of  clouds 
and  sky,  splendid  enough  even  by  themselves  to  be  long 
remembered,  were  reflected  from  the  surface  of  the  Sound, 
at  the  same  time  that  both  of  its  sides,  along  with  the 
mountains  of  Mull,  were  lighted  up  by  the  setting  Sun;  and, 
while  I  was  leaning  out  of  the  window  gazing  at  this 
scene,  music  from  the  piano  behind  me  served  as  a 
commentary.  The  exaltation  of  feeling  produced  was 
unparalleled  in  my  experience ;  and  never  since  has 
pleasurable  emotion  risen  in  me  to  the  same  intensity. 

Other  words  in  the  foregoing  extract  recall  the  fact  that 
during  my  stay,  what  little  writing  I  did  was  broken  by 
exercise,  now  on  the  land  and  now  on  the  water  :  some- 
times rambling  along  the  shore  of  Loch  Aline  and  sitting 
down  occasionally  to  dictate  a  few  sentences,  or  along  the 
Ardtornish  cliffs,  where  the  waterfalls  suggested  one  of 
the  illustrations  used  in  the  chapter  I  was  writing  on  the 
"Direction  of  Motion";  and  at  other  times  boating — 
either  paddling  about  in  Ardtornish  Bay  or  rowing  from 
Achranich  to  the  ferry,  and  dictating  while  I  rowed. 

Filled  with  many  pleasures  and  with  little  work,  the  time 
thus  passed  till  the  end  of  August. 

The  dates  of  letters  imply  that,  after  spending  something 

like  a  fortnight  at   home  on  my   way  south,   I  went  to 

London.      A   letter   written  from  18  Torrington  Square, 

on  September  21,  1861,  says  : — 

"I  reached  town  safely  on  WedneBday,  and  you  will  be  surprised  to  hear 
left  it  again  next  day.  Happening  to  call  on  Lewes,  I  was  induced  by  him 
to  join  him  in  a  country  ramble.  We  started  forthwith  for  Reigate,  and 
spent  Friday  and  Saturday  in  walking  through  a  charming  country ;  both  of 
ns  returning  much  the  better  for  the  excursion. 


70  WRITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  [1862. 

"I   had  eighty-eight   replies  to  my   advertisement  for  an   amanuensis. 
You  see  I  have  tound  one  ;  and  I  shall  commence  work  in  earnest  tomorrow." 

The  country  ramble  in  question  was  from  Reigate 
to  Dorking,  where  we  slept ;  thence  next  day  to  Ockley, 
where  we  slept ;  and  then  back  over  Leith  Hill.  Though 
not  the  last  of  the  excursions  we  made  together,  this  was, 
I  think,  the  last  but  two. 

I  had  evidently  not  yet  got  back  to  the  normal  level  of 
my  abnormal  state.  In  a  letter  of  the  26th  I  read  : — "  I 
am  much  better,  and  doing  my  work  (on  the  water)  with 
comfort "  :  the  result  being  that  my  next  number  was 
issued  in  November,  after  having  been  delayed  some  four 
or  five  months. 

Mention  of  its  issue  recalls  an  incident  affecting  my 
finances,  which  should  be  named.  In  a  preceding  chapter 
I  have  stated  that  Chapman,  with  whom  I  had  published 
Social  Statics,  had,  after  sinking  a  good  deal  of  money, 
been  finally  compelled  to  give  up  his  publishing  business. 
It  was  eventually  taken  by  a  Mr.  Manwaring — a  young 
man  quite  inadequately  prepared,  as  it  turned  out.  The 
Principles  of  Psychology  and  a  volume  of  Essays,  Sfc,  had 
been  published  for  me  by  Messrs.  Longman;  but  my  business 
transactions  with  the  firm  had  been  such  as  rendered  me 
undesirous  of  continuing  them,  and  still  more  undesirous 
of  extending  them.  Consequently  I  put  the  issue  of  my 
serial  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Manwaring.  It  proved  an 
unfortunate  step,  for  there  soon  came  a  crash.  A  letter 
to  my  father  written  on  22nd  January,  1862,  says  : — 

"You  will  see  by  the  enclosed  that  I  have  succeeded  (though  after  some 
difficulty)  in  coming  to  an  arrangement  with  Williams  &  Norgate.  Every- 
one agrees  that  they  are  the  best  people  I  could  have.  I  shall  be  very  glad 
to  get  out  of  Manwaring's  hands  ;  but  I  expect  to  lose  by  him  considerably." 

This  expectation  was  fulfilled.  By  Mr.  Manwaring  were 
of  course  received  the  amounts  paid  by  subscribers,  and  of 
the  sum  accruing  from  them  which  was  in  his  hands  at  the 
time  of  his  failure  (between  forty  and  fifty  pounds)  I  believe 
no  part  ever  reached  me.  As  I  was  already  suffering  loss 
from  defaulting  subscribers,  it  was  hard  that  I  should  lose 


^T.  41.]       WKITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  71 

also  a  portion  of  tlie  amount  derived  from  tliose  wlio  paid. 
In  the  absence  of  other  resources  the  result  might  have 
been  serious. 

The  "winter  months  aud  those  of  the  early  spring  brought 
no  events  worthy  of  record.  In  a  letter  of  23rd  January  I 
speak  of  myself  as  "  still  improving "  and  "  pretty  nearly 
up  to  my  average":  the  effect  being  that  now,  after  this 
relapse  so  long  in  being  recovered  from,  my  work  was 
progressing  with  but  little  hindrance. 

Certain  additions  to  my  social  circle  must  here  be  named. 
For  some  years  Mr.  and  Mrs.G-eorge  Busk  had  been  among 
my  acquaintances,  and  before  1862  I  had  come  to  count 
them  among  my  friends — friends  with  whom  the  intimacy 
grew  gradually  closer.  Retiring  in  nature,  and  consequently 
much  less  known  to  the  world  at  large  than  to  the  scientific 
world,  Mr.  Busk,  not  long  afterwards  elected  President  of 
the  College  of  Surgeons,  was  one  who  devoted  his  leisure 
(for  he  had  given  up  practice)  to  science  and  to  the  business 
of  various  scientific  societies  in  which  he  took  an  active 
part.  And  Mrs.  Busk,  scientifically  cultivated  in  a  degree 
rare  among  ladies,  united  with  her  culture  other  mental 
attractions,  which  gave  a  never  failing  interest  to  her 
conversation.  In  after  years  many  pleasant  times,  short 
and  long,  were  spent  with  them  and  their  four  daughters. 

On  several  occasions,  at  their  house  and  elsewhere,  I  had 
met  at  dinner  one  whose  name  has  since  become  familiar 
to  most;  and  the  result  was  the  commencement  of  an 
intimacy,  as  witness  the  following  passage  in  a  letter  to 
my  father : — 

"  As  you  see  by  this  note,  I  have  made  some  new  friends.  The  writer, 
well  known  in  the  world  of  science,  is  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  John  Lubbock, 
whose  name  you  know  very  well  as  an  astronomer.  I  spent  a  very  pleasant 
two  days  with  them  and  met  Sir  John  Lubbock  there  at  dinner,  .  .  Last 
night  I  had  a  note  from  Mrs.  Lubbock  asking  me  to  go  down  to  them  again 
on  the  13th  of  April." 

At  that  time  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lubbock  lived  at  Lammas, 


72  WEITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  [1862. 

Chislehurst.  Many  Saturday  afternoons  and  Sundays  were 
afterwards  agreeably  spent  there ;  and  when,  a  few  years 
later.  High  Elms,  the  family  seat,  descended  along  with 
the  title  to  Mr.  Lubbock,  visits  of  this  kind  were  continued. 
Other  guests,  coming  from  the  worlds  of  science,  literature, 
and  politics,  while  they  made  these  occasions  interesting, 
made  them  also  somewhat  too  exciting :  especially  as  all 
present  were  habitually  drawn  out  by  Lady  Lubbock's 
vivacity  and  Sir  John's  versatility.  Two  unusually  bad 
nights  were  commonly  entailed  on  me ;  and  consequently, 
as  time  went  on,  I  had  more  and  more  to  avoid  these  and 
other  such  Sunday  visits  into  the  country  :  a  further  reason 
for  doing  this  being  that  on  each  occasion  the  Monday 
morning's  work  was  in  large  measure  sacrificed. 

Here  the  mention  of  Sir  John  Lubbock's  versatility, 
conspicuous  enough  even  to  readers  of  newspapers  and 
still  more  conspicuous  to  those  who  know  all  his  many 
activities,  recalls  an  incident  which  illustrates  his  remark- 
able facility  in  carrying  on  many  occupations.  The  incident 
occurred  some  four  years  or  so  later,  at  a  time  when  I  had 
been  investigating  the  circulation  in  plants,  and  had  made 
a  number  of  preparations  for  the  microscope.  These  I 
took  with  me  one  Saturday  to  High  Elms,  thinking  they 
would  prove  of  interest.  On  the  Monday  morning  early. 
Sir  John  was  out  cub-hunting  with  his  brothers  (a  frequent 
practice  with  them) ;  on  his  return  he  made  a  diagram  for 
a  lecture  he  was  about  to  give ;  then  he  examined  under 
the  microscope  the  preparations  I  had  brought;  and  finally 
he  came  to  breakfast.  After  breakfast  there  was  the  drive 
to  the  station ;  a  rapid  glance  through  the  Times  on  the 
way  up  to  town;  some  pages  of  a  book  which  he  had 
brought  with  him ;  and  at  length  came  the  business  of  the 
day,  itself  sufiiciently  varied — banking,  probably  a  board- 
meeting  of  some  kind,  politjical  business,  attendance  at  a 
scientific  society  :  perhaps  after  a  dinner  party.  And  the 
remarkable  peculiarity  was  that  with  all  these  many  and 


^T.  42.]       WETTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  73 

varied  occupations  lie  never  seemed  in  a  hurry;  but,  by 
his  habitual  calm,  gave  the  impression  that  he  was  quite 
at  leisure. 

On  looking  back  to  my  social  life  at  this  time,  I  see  that 
its  excitements  were  becoming  occasionally  too  much  for 
me,  as  witness  some  sentences  in  a  letter  home  dated 
15th  of  April  :— 

'•  Dining  out  three  days  running  is  always  more  than  I  can  stand  with 
impunity;  and  I  am  hence  somewhat  below  par  this  morning,  but  not  so 
much  so  as  I  expected.  In  consequence  of  this  accumulation  of  excitements 
I  had  to  excuse  myself  from  the  Coopers'  invitation,  which  was  for  Friday. 
As  I  told  Mrs.  Cooper,  I  dare  not  accept  it.  I  shall  call  on  them  in  the  course 
of  this  week." 

Let  me  add,  however,  that  I  have  often  found  dining  out 
in  moderation,  beneficial  rather  than  injurious — especially 
in  a  lively  circle,  as  I  think  I  have  before  remarked.  My 
experiences  to  a  considerable  extent  justify  the  advice 
which  Sir  Henry  Holland  told  me  he  gave  to  his  dyspeptic 
patients.  He  recommended  them  to  go  out  to  dinner  and 
eat  made  dishes. 

A  few  words  about  the  Loweses  should  be  added  here. 
Charles,  his  father's  eldest  son,  had  recently  obtained 
— a  post  in  the  Post  Ofiice  I  was  about  to  say,  but  the 
cacophony  stopped  me;  and  then  I  was  about  to  say,  an 
office  in  the  Post  Office,  which  is  nearly  as  bad ;  let  me 
say — a  place  in  the  Post  Office.  Chiefly,  I  believe,  for  his 
benefit,  they  removed  from  Wandsworth  into  town,  and 
took  a  house  in  Blandford  Square.  From  time  to  time  I 
spent  an  evening  with  them  there — always  pleasantly,  of 
course.  Occasionally  Lewes  and  I  and  another  friend  of 
theirs,  amused  ourselves  by  singing  glees.  George  Eliot, 
however,  never  joined  us  :  why,  I  do  not  know,  for  her  voice 
would  greatly  have  improved  the  harmony. 

A  change  of  residence  was  made  towards  the  end  of 
February.  I  removed  to  29  Bloomsbury  Square.  The 
house  was  a  good  one,  having  large  rooms  and  being  in 


74  WRITING  FIRST  PRINCIFLES.  [1862. 

other  ways  desirable.  Here  I  remained  for  the  rest  of  the 
season ;  and  here,  before  the  end  of  June,  I  completed 
First  Principles. 

Am  I  about  to  write  an  imaginary  review  of  the  work,  as 
of  two  preceding  works  ?  No :  like  reasons  do  not  exist. 
The  motive  for  giving,  in  the  manner  adopted,  an  account 
of  Social  Statics,  was  that  the  connexion  between  its  ideas 
and  the  ideas  which  preceded  and  succeeded  them,  might  be 
exhibited;  and  it  seemed  the  more  needful  thus  to  exhibit 
them  because,  as  I  have  for  many  years  been  deterred  by 
consciousness  of  its  defects  from  issuing  new  editions  of 
the  work,  it  is  difficult  of  access.  Similarly  with  The 
Principles  of  Psychology.  Save  in  a  few  public  libraries,  no 
one  can  now  find  a  copy  of  the  first  edition ;  and  only, 
therefore,  by  the  help  of  the  outline  I  have  given,  can  any 
one  judge  of  its  relation  to  antecedent  and  subsequent 
phases  of  thought,  as  well  as  of  its  divergence  from  con- 
temporary opinion.  But  in  First  Principles,  which  from 
its  date  of  publication  has  continued  in  successive  editions 
to  be  readily  accessible,  there  is  exhibited,  not  a  stage  in 
the  development  of  the  doctrine,  but  the  developed  doctrine 
itself.  Though  an  unlooked  for  evolution  of  considerable 
importance  subsequently  took  place,  as  will  hereafter  be 
shown,  yet  the  system  had  now  so  far  approached  its  final 
shape  that  description  of  it  as  one  of  the  stages  passed 
through  would  be  superfluous. 

But,  though  I  do  not  intend  either  to  outline  the  contents 
of  the  book  or  to  pass  any  criticisms  upon  it,  I  find  occa- 
sion to  make  some  comments :  partly  concerning  the 
reception  it  met  with  and  partly  concerning  my  entirely 
erroneous  anticipations. 

Unlike  a  book  of  travels,  or  a  gossiping  biography, 
or  a  volume  of  Court  scandal,  or  a  fresh  translation  of 
some  classical  author,  or  the  account  of  some  bloody  cam- 
paign, or  a  new  speculation  concerning  the  authorship  of 
Junius,  or  a  discussion  of  Queen  Mary's  amours,  it  offered 


.Et.  42.]       WRITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  75 

no  temptation  to  the  writer  of  reviews  in  literary  journals ; 
and  liencej  as  might  have  been  expected,  it  was  compara- 
tively little  noticed.  Passed  over  altogether  by  some 
critical  organs,  it  got  in  some  others  the  briefest  recog- 
nition ;  as,  for  instance,  in  the  Spectator,  which  gave  to  it 
one  of  those  paragraphs  of  a  score  of  lines  in  small  type,  in 
which  it  dismisses  ephemeral  books.  While  I  was  not 
much  surprised  at  this,  my  surprise  was  considerable  on 
finding  that  in  most  cases  the  important  part  of  the  book 
was  ignored,  and  that  such  notice  as  was  taken,  was  taken 
of  the  part  which  I  regarded  as  relatively  unimportant. 

Years  before,  when  there  took  possession  of  me  the 
project  of  developing  into  a  System  of  Philosophy  the  con- 
ception briefly  and  crudely  set  forth  in  the  essay  on 
"  Progress  :  its  Law  and  Cause,"  I  saw  that  it  would  be 
needful  to  preface  the  exposition  by  some  chapters  setting 
forth  my  beliefs  on  ultimate  questions,  metaphysical  and 
theological;  since,  otherwise,  I  should  be  charged  with 
propounding  a  purely  materialistic  interpretation  of  things. 
Hence  resulted  the  first  division — ''  The  Unknowable."  My 
expectation  was  that  having  duly  recognized  this  repudia- 
tion of  materialism,  joined  with  the  assertion  that  any 
explanation  which  may  be  reached  of  the  order  of  phe- 
nomena as  manifested  to  us  throughout  the  Universe,  must 
leave  the  Ultimate  Mystery  unsolved,  readers,  and  by 
implication  critics,  would  go  on  to  consider  the  explanation 
proposed.  To  me  it  seemed  manifest  that  the  essential 
part  of  the  book — the  doctrine  of  Evolution — may  be  held 
without  aflarming  any  metaphysical  or  theological  beliefs ; 
and  though,  to  avoid  the  ascription  of  certain  beliefs  of 
these  classes  which  I  do  not  hold,  I  thought  it  prudent  to 
exclude  them,  I  presumed  that  others,  after  noting  the 
exclusion  of  them  by  the  first  division  of  the  work,  would 
turn  their  thoughts  chiefly  to  the  second  division.  Nothing 
of  the  kind  happened.  Such  attention  as  was  given  was  in 
nearly  all  cases  given  to  the  agnostic  view  which  I  set  forth 


76  WRITING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  [1862. 

as  a  preliminary.  The  general  theory  whicli  the  body  of 
the  book  elaborates  was  passed  over  or  but  vaguely  indi- 
cated. And  during  the  five  and  twenty  years  which  have 
since  elapsed,  I  have  nowhere  seen  a  brief  exposition  of 
this  general  theory. 

It  might  have  been  not  unreasonably  supposed  that  an 
alleged  law  of  transformation,  everywhere  unceasingly 
displayed  by  existences  of  all  orders,  would  have  received 
the  amount  of  consideration  required  for  deciding  on  its 
probable  truth  or  probable  falsehood ;  seeing  that  if  false 
its  falsity  ought  to  be  shown,  and  if  true  it  should  enter  as 
an  important  factor  in  men's  conceptions  of  the  world 
around  them.  But  it  did  not  seem  so  to  those  who  under- 
take to  guide  public  opinion. 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII.     , 
AN  AUTUMN'S  RELAXATIONS. 
1862.     ^t.  42. 

"  WelLj  it  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  think  that  the 
doctrine  is  now  safely  set  forth,  whatever  happens  to  me/' 
I  remarked  to  a  friend  after  First  Principles  was  published; 
and  I  doubt  not  that  this  satisfaction,  partly  personal  but 
largely  impersonal,  added  to  the  zest  with  which  I  entered 
upon  the  relaxations  of  the  summer  and  autumn. 

I  say  advisedly  the  summer  and  autumn.  The  year  1862 
was  the  year  of  the  second  International  Exhibition;  and  of 
course,  as  soon  as  I  was  at  leisure,  I  devoted  a  good  deal  of 
attention  to  it.  My  father,  and  afterwards  my  mother, 
came  up  to  town;  and  days  were  spent  there  in  showing 
them  the  things  of  chief  interest.  Then  there  arrived 
the  Letts  and  other  country  friends,  to  whom  also  I  occa- 
sionally played  the  part  of  guide.  Naturally  the  pleasures 
given  were  not  so  keen  as  those  given  by  the  first  Exhi- 
bition; but  still  they  were  great. 

On  the  10th  of  July  I  was  at  Llandudno  with  the  Lotts. 
We  made  a  fortnight's  stay  there,  during  which  we  one 
day  picnic'd  at  the  Aber  Falls.  On  the  left  hand,  the 
falls  are  flanked  by  a  spur  of  Carned  David  (or  is  it 
Carned  Llewellyn  ?) ;  and  this,  in  the  course  of  the  after- 
noon, Lett  and  I  climbed.  The  climb  had  a  sequence,  as 
witness  the  following  passage  of  a  letter  of  16th  July. 

"We  made  a  mountain  ramble  two  days  ago,  and  I  found  it  did  me  more 


78  AN  AUTUMN'S  RELAXATIONS.  [1862. 

good  than  anything  since  I  hav«  been  here.     So  I  propose  to  have  a  course 
of  moantain  rambles.     I  am  moderately  well  but  not  brilliant  in  condition." 

The  result  was  that,  on  our  return  to  Derby,  I  shortly 
started  on  a  pedestrian  fishing  tour  in  Scotland. 

As  far  as  Oban  and  the  lower  part  of  the  Caledonian 
Canal,  I  kept  to  familiar  routes ;  but  at  Invergarry  I  left 
the  steam-boat,  having  decided  to  explore  the  west  and 
north  of  Ross. 

The  remainder  of  my  first  day,  during  which  I  stopped 
here  and  there  to  make  a  few  casts  for  trout  in  the  Garry, 
brought  me  to  Tomdoun  Inn;  and  on  the  next  day,  Sunday, 
walking  up  the  rest  of  G-lengarry  and  down  G-len  Quoich, 
I  reached  Loch  Hourn-head.  Loch  Hourn  is  the  grandest 
of  the  Scotch  lochs;  and  though  the  part  seen  in  this 
descent  to  it  is  not  the  best,  it  delighted  me  so  much  that 
my  pleasure  became  vocal.  Perhaps  it  would  not  have 
done  so  had  I  known  what  awaited  me.  To  the  name 
Loch  Hourn-head  was  joined  on  my  map  one  of  the  little 
circles  which  usually  imply  at  least  a  village  having  an 
inn,  if  not  a  larger  place.  I  found,  however,  that  besides 
some  tumble-down  fishermen's  cottages  the  only  house  was 
a  keeper's  lodge.  Here  I  was  taken  in  by  favour,  and  had 
to  put  up  with  meagre  fare  and  rude  accommodation  :  a 
damp  bed  being  part  of  it.  Fortunately  I  had  provided 
myself  with  a  pocket-waterproof,  and  here,  as  at  various 
places  stopped  at  in  my  tour,  this  befriended  me  :  on  some 
occasions  keeping  off  the  rain  by  day,  it,  on  other  occasions, 
served,  when  used  as  a  sheet,  to  keep  off  the  damp 
by  night. 

In  the  course  of  the  evening  I  said  that  on  the  morrow 
I  intended  to  cross  over  into  Glen  Shiel.  My  host 
expressed  his  fear  that  he  would  be  unable  to  give  me 
a  guide,  as  they  were  busy  with  the  hay.  I  slighted  the 
notion  that  I  needed  a  guide  :  saying  that  I  was  accus- 
tomed to  Scotch  mountains.     Next  morning  proved  fine; 


;Et.  42.]       AN  AUTUMN'S  RELAXATIONS.  79 

and  the  keeper^  admitting  that  I  should  perhaps  be  able  to 
find  my  way,  directed  me  where  to  ford  the  stream  which 
drains  Glen  Quoich.  In  an  hour  or  so,  I  reached  the  top 
of  the  mountain-ridge  whence  I  expected  to  look  down  on 
Glen  Shiel  and  the  high  road  running  through  it.  To  my 
astonishment  I  found  below  me  a  bare  valley  with  no  trace 
of  road  or  human  habitation.  The  map,  which  showed  a 
single  range  of  mountains  between  Glen  Quoich  and  Glen 
Shiel,  had  deceived  me  :  there  were  two  ranges.  Had  the 
summits  of  the  hills  become  clouded  I  should  not  have 
known  where  I  was,  on  descending.  Fortunately  the  day 
continued  fine.  Keeping  my  bearings  pretty  accurately, 
I  ascended  the  second  ridge,  and  then,  as  I  expected,  saw 
Glen  Shiel.  During  my  scramble  down  a  steep  hill  side 
covered  with  heather  so  deep  that  I  could  not  see  my 
footing,  I  twice  slipped  one  of  my  legs  into  a  crevice 
between  rocks  and  might  readily  have  broken  it.  Had  I 
done  so,  I  should  most  likely  have  died  there.  When  I  got 
safely  on  to  the  high  road  I  became  conscious  of  the  risk 
that  is  run  by  one  who,  leaving  a  place  to  which  he  will 
not  return,  traverses  alone  a  wild  tract  of  country  on  the 
way  to  a  place  where  no  one  expects  him.  In  case  of  acci- 
dent he  is  not  missed,  and  no  search  is  made.  Another 
thing  struck  me.  Joining  my  experiences  in  Switzerland 
with  the  experience  I  had  just  had,  I  was  impressed  with 
the  heavy  responsibility  which  rests  on  the  makers  and 
publishers  of  guide-books.  I  suspect  that  from  time  to 
time  lives  are  lost,  and  every  year  many  illnesses  caused, 
in  consequence  of  their  misdirections. 

A  night  passed  at  Shiel  Inn  was  followed  by  a  day 
passed  in  fishing  the  river  which  runs  down  the  Glen. 
Half  a  dozen  or  more  sea-trout  rewarded  my  efforts ;  but 
the  water  was  far  too  low  for  good  fishing  and  the  inn 
was  uncomfortable,  so  that  I  was  not  tempted  to  stay.  A 
delightful  sunny  walk  along  the  picturesque  shore  of  Loch 
Duich  carried  me  the  following  morning  as  far  as  Loch 


80  AN  AUTUMN'S  RELAXATIONS.  [1862. 

Alsh  Ferry,  and  thence  to  Balmacarra.  A  fishing  ramble 
filled  the  next  day.  On  the  morrow  a  pleasant  walk  over 
the  intervening  hills  brought  me  to  Loch  Carron  ferry,  and 
a  further  walk  to  Jeantown.  The  morning  after  found  me 
on  the  other  side  of  the  ridge  dividing  Loch  Carron  from 
the  valley  which  skirts  the  Applecross  mountains — strange 
looking,  and  one  of  them  especially  remarkable :  a  moun- 
tain situated  in  the  centre  of  an  amphitheatre  of  precipices, 
from  which  it  has  evidently  been  cut  out  by  glacier-action. 
That  evening  I  reached  Shieldag,  a  dreary  little  fishing 
hamlet  on  the  shore  of  Loch  Torridon.  The  western  side 
of  Ross  is  not  much  frequented  by  tourists,  and  pro- 
bably I  was  the  first  that  season  who  had  stopped  at  the 
miserable  little  inn.  They  gave  me  a  bedroom  so  damp 
that  the  paper  hung  from  the  walls  in  festoons.  '^A 
sabbath  day's  journey"  to  Kinlochewe  was  instructive,  as 
well  as  picturesque  in  scenery.  The  doctrine  of  denudation 
receives  in  these  regions  striking  confirmations.  On  all 
sides  the  mountains,  consisting  the  greater  part  of  the  way 
up  of,  I  think,  dull  red  sandstone,  are  capped  with  quartz 
rock.  Evidently  quartz  rock  once  extended  over  the  whole 
district ;  and  these  islands  of  quartz  on  the  mountain  tops, 
have  been  left  there  by  the  eroding  agencies  which  cut  out 
the  wide  and  deep  valleys  between.  Then,  among  further 
objects  of  geological  interest  is  "  the  valley  of  a  thousand 
hills " :  such  being,  it  is  said,  the  literal  meaning*  of  the 
Gaelic  name.  It  contains  a  vast  moraine.  An  ancient 
glacier,  bearing  on  its  surface  many  separate  lines  of 
debris,  must  have  paused  from  time  to  time  in  the  course  of 
its  slow  retreat,  so  as  to  deliver  each  lino  of  debris  for  a 
long  interval  on  the  same  spot :   thus  forming  a  heap. 

A  day  at  Kinlochewe  was  passed  in  trying  to  take  some 
sea-trout  out  of  Loch  Maree;  but  as  I  lacked  a  boat, 
the  attempt  failed  entirely.  Next  day  left  behind  it  two 
memories.  The  road  to  Gairloch  runs  along  the  shore 
of  Loch  Maree ;  and,  keeping  in  view  the  imposing  Ben 


iEx.  42.J       AN  AUTUMN'S  RELAXATIONS.  81 

Sleoch  on  tlie  right,  passes  on  the  left,  after  two  or  three 
miles,  the  mouth  of  a  valley  which  runs  away  inland. 
Some  miles  down  this  valley  stands  a  mountain  of  sub- 
conical  shape,  the  sides  of  which  are  channeled  by  water- 
courses. If,  imagining  these  water-courses,  deeply  cut  into 
the  rock,  to  have  originally  run  straight  down,  it  be  sup- 
posed that  some  power  adequately  great  gave  the  whole 
mountain  a  twist  round  its  vertical  axis,  so  as  to  change 
these  straight  water-courses  into  spiral  ones,  an  idea  will 
be  gained  of  its  structure.  A  sketch  of  this  mountain 
still  exists  among  my  papers.  Some  miles  further  on, 
where  there  lies  between  the  road  and  the  side  of  the  loch 
a  low  bit  of  rough  land,  some  adjacent  cottagers,  while 
digging  out  peat,  had  brought  into  view  a  large  surface 
of  granite,  not  simply  rounded,  but  retaining  the  polish 
given  to  it  by  the  glacier  that  once  filled  the  basin  of 
Loch  Maree — a  polish  which  had  been  preserved  by  the 
overlying  peat  for  —  how  long  shall  we  say  ?  perhaps 
50,000  years. 

At  the  end  of  one  of  those  days,  common  in  mountainous 
countries,  during  which  one  is  frequently  tempted  by  a 
gleam  of  sunshine  to  take  off  one's  waterproof,  and  then, 
ten  minutes  after,  by  a  sudden  shower  compelled  to  put 
it  on  again,  I  reached  the  Gairloch  Hotel ;  and  thence,  the 
morning  after,  departed  for  Poolewe,  there  to  await,  in  a 
dreary  little  inn,  the  expedition  of  the  next  day — the  most 
serious  in  the  course  of  my  tour.  Ullapool  on  Loch  Broom 
was  the  nearest  stopping  place  on  the  northern  coast  of 
Ross.  Between  it  and  Poolewe  was  a  wild  country 
traversed  by  a  bad  road,  with  no  place  where  rest  or 
refreshment  could  be  had.  But  I  had  either  to  go  on 
to  Ullapool  or  to  return  the  way  I  came,  which  I  was 
reluctant  to  do. 

Hiring  a  boat  down  Loch  Ewe  as  far  as  the  point  at 
which  my  route  diverged  from  its  shore,  and  bidding  good 
morning  to  the  boatmen,  I  commenced  my  solitray  walk  of, 

G 


82  AN  AUTUMN'S  RELAXATIONS.  [1862 

I  suppose,  over  thirty  miles  :  stopping  after  some  hours 
to  take  my  meagre  mid-day  meal  of  boiled  herrings  and 
bread  which  I  had  brought  with  me.  The  monotony  of  the 
day  was  beguiled  somewhat  by  the  scenery,  or  perhaps 
I  should  say  rather  by  the  striking  geological  traits  it 
presented :  especially  those  of  immense  glacier-action.  I 
passed  over  a  ridge  of  hills,  probably  some  four  or  five 
hundred  feet  high,  on  the  top  of  which  all  the  rocks  were 
rounded ;  showing  that  in  ancient  times  the  glaciers  which 
had  filled  the  adjacent  valleys  had  also  covered  this  ridge, 
to  a  depth,  probably,  of  some  hundreds  of  feet.  Late  in 
the  afternoon  I  reached  the  shore  of  Little  Loch  Broom. 
Here,  to  cut  off  a  portion  of  the  road,  I  paid  one  of  the 
fishermen  to  row  me  across  :  first,  however,  having  an 
experience  of  Celtic  indolence.  The  boat  was  lying  on  the 
beach  half  full  of  water.  The  man  took  out  the  plug,  and 
he  and  his  daughter  stood  idly  by,  waiting  until,  by  a 
stream  the  thickness  of  one's  finger,  the  water  should 
escape.  He  seemed  quite  unconcerned  when  I,  in  a  fit  of 
exasperation,  seized  the  baler  and  began  to  empty  the  boat 
myself.  Shortly  after  came  what  might  have  ended  in 
disaster.  By  the  people  of  some  dilapidated  cottages  on 
the  opposite  shore,  I  was  directed  into  a  path  which  went 
over  the  high  moor  to  Loch  Broom.  This  path  continued 
fairly  visible  for  a  time ;  but,  as  I  got  on  to  the  flat  top  of 
the  moor  or  mountain  bog  (for  it  was  entirely  formed  of 
deep  peat),  I  found  it  traversed  in  all  directions  by  largo 
fissures  which  the  water  had  made  in  draining  away — 
fissures  three  or  four  feet  wide  and  as  deep  or  deeper,  over 
which  I  had  continually  to  leap.  It  was  in  short  a  bog  full 
of  crevasses,  with  bottoms  of  soft  peat-mud,  out  of  which  I 
should  not  easily  have  got  had  I  fallen  in.  As  the  evening 
was  coming  down  rapidly  and  the  path  was  no  longer 
discernible,  I  became  somewhat  fearful  of  the  result;  but 
fortunately  I  got  across  before  it  became  dark,  and 
descended  to  Loch  Broom  and  to  Ullapool. 

Letters  show  that  I  had  intended  to  go  as  far  north  as 


Ml.  42.]  AN  AUTUMN'S  EELAXATIONS.  83 

Loch  Assynt  in  Sutlierlandsliire ;  but  my  companionless 
excursion,  though  enjoyable  at  the  beginning,  was  getting 
wearisome,  and  I  doubt  whether  I  should  have  fulfilled  my 
intention  even  had  nothing  occurred  to  prevent  me.  But 
something  did  occur.  A  letter  which  I  found  waiting  for 
me  at  Ullapool  made  me  turn  my  face  south,  and  travel  as 
fast  as  coach,  railway,  and  steamboat  would  carry  me. 

The  contyents  of  the  letter  which  so  precipitately  changed 
my  course,  may  be  inferred  from  the  following  few 
lines  written  home,  dated  Glasgow,  August  17th: — "Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Youmans  are  come.  I  am  just  starting  off  with 
them  for  a  few  days.  You  will  probably  see  me  early 
next  week." 

Professor  Youmans,  who  from  the  outset  became  so 
ardent  an  adherent  of  mine,  and  then,  as  always,  was 
prepared  for  any  amount  of  labour  on  my  behalf,  had 
come  over  to  England  with  his  wife  (being  then  recently 
married),  partly  as  he  told  me  to  see  the  Great  Exhibition 
of  1862,  and  partly  to  consult  with  me  concerning  the 
management  of  my  affairs  in  the  United  States. 

Our  conversations  were  carried  on  in  the  course  of  three 
days  spent  in  taking  these  new  friends  round  to  the  chief 
places  of  interest  that  were  easily  accessible.  Edinburgh, 
of  course,  came  in  for  immediate  attention :  the  chief 
streets,  Calton  Hill,  The  Castle,  and  Holyrood,  being 
visited.  I  was  but  a  poor  cicerone  for  them,  however, 
as  measured  by  ordinary  standards ;  for  I  could  tell  them 
nothing  about  the  historical  associations.  I  have  a  vague 
recollection  of  amusing  Professor  Youmans  by  my  response 
to  some  remark  or  question  coming  from  our  guide  at 
Holyrood — "  I  am  happy  to  say  I  don't  know."  Probably 
the  remark  or  question  referred  to  Queen  Mary.  On  this, 
as  on  kindred  occasions,  I  thus  implied  my  satisfaction, 
partly  in  having  used  time  and  brain-space  for  knowledge 
better  worth  having,  and  partly  in  expressing  my  small 

6* 


84  AN  AUTUMN'S  RELAXATIONS.  [1862. 

respect   for  gossip   about   people   of  no   intrinsic   worth, 
whether  dead  or  living. 

Of  course  something  of  Scottish  scenery  had  to  be 
shown ;  and  as  my  friends  could  not  spare  time  for  anything 
more  distant,  I  carried  them  over  the  ordinary  tourists' 
round — by  Callander  to  Loch  Katrine;  thence  to  Inver- 
snaid;  across  Loch  Lomond  to  Tarbet;  and  from  that  place 
to  Arrochar  on  Loch  Long.  The  night  being  passed  there, 
we  went  by  steamboat  next  morning  to  Greenock,  where  we 
parted;  they  for  London  on  their  way  to  the  continent 
and  I,  in  the  course  of  the  day,  for  Derby. 

After  a  fortnight  at  home  and  a  few  days  spent  with  the 
Brays  at  Coventry,  I  returned  to  London — not  indeed  to 
my  previous  abode ;  for  I  found  there  no  fit  accommo- 
dation. A  letter  dated  15  Sept.  shows  that  I  was  settled 
in  Gloucester  Square,  Hyde  Park.  A  few  weeks'  expe- 
rience, however,  so  dissatisfied  me  with  the  management  of 
the  house  that  I  decided  upon  migrating.  Before  I  had 
found  another  suitable  place  Mr.  Silsbee,  an  American 
gentleman  named  in  a  preceding  chapter,  who  was  about 
to  spend  the  winter  in  the  south  of  France,  pressed  me  to 
go  as  far  as  Paris  with  him.  Being  under  obligation  to 
him,  and  having  work  enough  to  occupy  me  in  revising 
while  away,  I  consented,  and  we  departed  on  the  17  Oct. 

Of  incidents  during  this  visit  to  Paris  I  recall  but  one. 
This  was  a  discussion  with  Mr.  Silsbee  in  the  Louvre 
before  a  landscape  by  Rubens  (I  think),  rendered  partly  by 
time,  and  partly  by  the  artist,  unlike  anything  ever  seen — 
especially  in  atmospheric  effect ;  while  it  was  also  extremely 
unpicturesque  in  composition.  To  me  it  seemed  a  picture 
to  be  glanced  at  and  passed  by;  bub  from  Mr.  Silsbee  it 
called  forth  much  admiration.  Even  more  than  ourselves 
the  Americans  are  affected  by  the  appearance  of  antiquity  : 
so  much  so,  in  some  cases,  that  I  heard  an  American  lady 
declare  that  a  country  without  ruins  of  old  castles  and 


.Et.  42.]       AN  AUTUMN'S  RELAXATIONS.  85 

abbeys  is  not  worth  living  in.  And  in  still  greater  degrees 
than  ourselves^  they  are  thus  led  to  confound  those  extrinsic 
traits  of  objects  which  show  antiquity  with  those  intrinsic 
traits  which  characterize  them  as  works  of  art. 

Little  given  to  mental  analysis,  most  people  fail  to  dis- 
criminate among  the  causes  of  their  pleasures — or  rather, 
never  try  to  distinguish ;  and  hence  ascribe  to  an  ancient 
work  of  art  itself,  the  reverential  sentiments  which  its  age 
and  its  traditional  repute  arouse  in  them.  But  judgments 
swayed  by  these  sentiments  are  anything  but  trustworthy. 
The  one  case  in  which  something  like  measure  is  possible — 
that  of  relative  strength — shows  clearly  how  untrue  are 
men's  estimates  of  the  past  compared  with  the  present. 
And  doubtless  the  bias  which  has  so  conspicuously  per- 
verted current  opinion  in  a  matter  concerning  which  there 
ought  to  have  been  the  least  liability  to  mistake,  has 
perverted  it  in  other  matters,  and  among  them  in  matters 
of  art. 

One  may  say  with  some  approach  to  truth  that  on  art 
questions  men's  judgments  have  been  paralyzed  by 
authority  and  tradition  as  they  have  been  on  religious 
questions.  There  is  reason  for  hoping,  however,  that  as 
the  paralysis  is  diminishing  in  respect  of  the  last  it  will 
presently  diminish  in  respect  of  the  first. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

A  VOLUME   OF  THE  BIOLOGY. 
1862-64.     ^t.  42-44. 

On  my  return  from  Paris,  some  time  in  the  first  week  of 
November,  I  took  up  my  abode  at  6  Hinde  Street,  Man- 
chester Square, — a  house  which  has  since  been  destroyed 
in  the  formation  of  a  new  street.  Here  I  remained 
during  the  winter  and  early   spring. 

Is  it  really  a  fact  that  women  have  better  intuitions  into 
character  than  men  have  ?  That  they  are  quicker  to  divine 
other's  moods  of  mind,  there  is,  I  think,  good  reason  for 
believing,  as  I  have  pointed  out  in  the  Study  of  Sociology ; 
and  it  seems  almost  an  implication  that  if  they  perceive 
more  truly  the  passing  mental  states  in  those  they  observe, 
they  also  perceive  more  truly  their  permanent  mental 
states  or  established  natures.  Yet  when  we  remember  how 
multitudinous  are  the  cases  in  which  women  are  deceived 
by  smooth  manners  and  pretty  speeches,  we  cannot  but 
hesitate  about  admitting  this  implication.  May  not  the 
truth  rather  be  that  men  and  women  differ,  not  so  much 
in  these  intuitions  as  in  the  readiness  with  which  they 
accept  and  act  upon  them  ?  The  lines — "I  do  not  love 
thee  Dr.  Fell,  "  etc.,  point  to  a  distinction  between  the  two. 
Speaking  generally,  women  do  not  question  the  worth 
of  the  impressions  made  on  them;  while  men,  receiving 
the  like  impressions,  are  apt  to  doubt — often  think  the 
feelings  produced  in  them  are  merely  prejudices,  and 
consequently  decide  to  wait  for  evidence.      Now  as  im- 


^T.  42.]       A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  87 

pressions  of  these  kinds  are  usually  not  meaningless,  but 
vaguely  represent  organized  and  inherited  experiences  (as 
we  see  in  an  infant  which  cries  on  seeing  an  ugly  face  or 
hearing  a  gruff  voice),  it  results  that  women,  forthwith 
guided  by  such  impressions,  may  not  unfrequently  escape 
injuries  which  men,  waiting  for  evidence,  suffer  before  they 
have  satisfied  themselves  that  their  impressions  are  right. 

I  am  led  to  make  these  remarks  by  an  experience  in 
Hinde  Street.  The  first  impressions  I  received  from  my 
hostess  were  of  an  unfavourable  kind.  She  gave  me  the 
idea  of  a  nature  anything  but  attractive,  although  she  put 
on  a  manner  of  great  civility.  I  ignored  this  natural 
verdict  of  my  feelings,  but  I  had  afterwards  reason  to 
regret  that  I  did  not  yield  to  it.  Though  no  positive  evil 
resulted,  the  relation  was  an  unpleasant  one. 

Not  as  being  illustrative  of  anything  repugnant  in  her, 
I  may  here  name  for  its  drollery  an  incident  that 
occurred  during  my  few  months  of  stay  in  the  house. 
Vain  as  well  as  vulgar-minded,  she  professed  to  have 
a  high  admiration  of  Shakspeare :  was  partial  to 
reading  his  plays  aloud,  and  considered  that  she  declaimed 
the  speeches  extremely  well.  On  one  occasion,  after 
enlarging  upon  her  reverence  for  him,  she  ended  by  saying — 
"  Ah,  I  often  wish  that  he  were  alive,  and  I  had  him  here. 
How  we  should  enjoy  one  another's  conversation  V* 

I  had  commenced  the  Principles  of  Biology  immediately 
on  arriving  in  town  in  the  autumn ;  and  during  my  brief 
stay  in  Gloucester  Square  had  made  moderate  progress 
with  it.  My  visit  to  Paris,  though  it  did  not  put  a  stop 
to  revision,  stopped  dictation.  Of  course  I  resumed  this 
as  soon  as  possible  after  my  return.  Another  interruption, 
however,  though  too  brief  to  be  mentioned  save  for  its 
cause,  shortly  occurred. 

Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  had  just  published  his  work  on  Utilitar- 
ianism.    In  it,  to  my  surprise,  I  found  myself  classed  as  an 


88  A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  [1862. 

Anti-utilitarian.  Not  liking  to  let  pass  a  characterization 
which  I  regarded  as  erroneous,  I  wrote  to  him  explaining 
my  position — showing  in  what  I  agreed  with  the  existing 
school  of  Utilitarians,  and  in  what  I  differed  from  them. 
The  essential  part  of  this  letter  was  published  by  Professor 
Bain  in  one  of  the  closing  chapters  of  his  Mental  and  Moral 
Science;  but  it  is  not  to  be  found  anywhere  in  my  own 
works.  As  it  seems  unfit  that  this  anomalous  distribution 
should  be  permanent,  I  decide  to  reprint  it  here ;  omitting 
the  opening  and  closing  paragraphs  : — 

'  The  note  in  question  greatly  startled  me  by  implicitly  classing  me  with 
the  Anti-utilitarians.  I  have  never  regarded  myself  as  an  Anti-utilitarian. 
My  dissent  from  the  doctrine  of  Utility  as  commonly  understood,  concerns 
not  the  object  to  be  reached  by  men,  but  the  method  of  reaching  it.  While  I 
admit  that  happiness  is  the  ultimate  end  to  be  contemplated,  I  do  not  admit 
that  it  should  be  the  proximate  end.  The  Expediency-Philosophy  having 
concluded  that  happiness  is  the  thing  to  be  achieved,  assumes  that  morality 
has  no  other  business  than  empirically  to  generalize  the  results  of  conduct, 
and  to  supply  for  the  guidance  of  conduct  nothing  more  than  its  empirical 
generalizations. 

'  But  the  view  for  which  I  contend  is,  that  Morality  properly  so-called  — 
the  science  of  right  conduct — has  for  its  object  to  determine  kow  and  why 
certain  modes  of  conduct  are  detrimental,  and  certain  other  modes  beneficial. 
These  good  and  bad  results  cannot  be  accidental,  but  must  be  necessary 
consequences  of  the  constitution  of  things ;  and  I  conceive  it  to  be  the 
business  of  moral  science  to  deduce,  from  the  laws  of  life  and  the  conditions 
of  existence,  what  kinds  of  action  necessarily  tend  to  produce  happiness,  and 
what  kinds  to  produce  unhappiness.  Having  done  this,  its  deductions  are  to 
be  recognized  as  laws  of  conduct ;  and  are  to  be  conformed  to  irrespective  of 
a  direct  estimation  of  happiness  or  misery. 

'Perhaps  an  analogy  will  most  clearly  show  my  meaning.  During  its 
early  stages,  planetary  Astronomy  consisted  of  nothing  more  than  accu- 
mulated observations  respecting  the  positions  and  motions  of  the  sun 
and  planets ;  from  which  accumulated  observations  it  came  by  and  by  to  be 
empirically  predicted,  with  an  approach  to  truth,  that  certain  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  would  have  certain  positions  at  certain  times.  But  the  modern 
science  of  planetary  Astronomy  consists  of  deductions  from  the  law  of 
gravitation — deductions  showing  why  the  celestial  bodies  necessarily  occupy 
certain  places  at  certain  times.  Now,  the  kind  of  relation  which  thus  exists 
between  ancient  and  modern  Astronomy  is  analogous  to  the  kind  of  relation 
which,  I  conceive,  exists  between  the  Expediency-Morality  and  Moral 
Science  properly  so-called.     And  the  objection  which  I  have  to  the  current 


^T.  42.]       A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  89 

tJtiUtarianism,  is,  that  it  recognizes  no  more  developed  form  of  morality — 
does  not  see  that  it  has  reached  but  the  initial  stage  of  Moral  Science. 

'  To  make  my  position  fully  understood,  it  seems  needful  to  add  that, 
corresponding  to  the  fundamental  propositions  of  a  developed  Moral  Science, 
there  have  been,  and  still  are,  developing  in  the  race,  certain  fundamental 
moral  intuitions ;  and  that,  though  these  moral  intuitions  are  the  results  of 
accumulated  experiences  of  utility,  gradually  organized  and  inherited,  they 
have  come  to  be  quite  independent  of  conscious  experience.  Just  in 
the  same  way  that  I  believe  the  intuition  of  space,  possessed  by  any  living 
individual,  to  have  arisen  from  organized  and  consolidated  experiences  of  all 
antecedent  individuals  who  bequeathed  to  him  their  slowly- developed  nervous 
organizations — just  as  I  beheve  that  this  intuition,  requiring  only  to  be  made 
definite  and  complete  by  personal  experiences,  has  practically  become  a  form 
of  thought,  apparently  quite  independent  of  experience  ;  so  do  I  believe  that 
the  experiences  of  utility,  organized  and  consolidated  through  all  past  genera- 
tions of  the  human  race,  have  been  producing  corresponding  nervous 
modifications,  which,  by  continued  transmission  and  accumulation,  have 
become  in  us  certain  faculties  of  moral  intuition — certain  emotions  responding 
to  right  and  wrong  conduct,  which  have  no  apparent  basis  in  the  individual 
experiences  of  utility.  I  also  hold  that  just  as  the  space-intuition  responds 
to  the  exact  demonstrations  of  Geometry,  and  has  its  rough  conclusions 
interpreted  and  verified  by  them  ;  so  will  moral  intuitions  respond  to  the 
demonstrations  of  Moral  Science,  and  will  have  their  rough  conclusions 
interpreted  and  verified  by  them.' 

Before  leaving  the  subject  I  may  remark  tliat  this 
difference  of  view  has^  I  believe,  arisen  in  part  from 
difference  of  culture.  In  Bentham's  day  the  knowledge  of 
physical  science  was  confined  to  a  small  number;  and,  as  a 
result,  thoughts  about  causation  were,  in  nearly  all  men, 
vague  and  undeveloped.  Education,  if  not  wholly  linguistic, 
included  such  other  subjects  only  as  gave  scarcely  any 
material  for  generating  definite  ideas  of  causal  relations. 
That  every  expended  force  must  work,  somehow  and 
somewhere,  an  equivalent  of  change,  and  conversely,  was 
an  idea  rendered  familiar  to  scarcely  any.  The  like  may,  I 
think,  be  said  of  Bentham's  followers  in  general.  Though, 
doubtless,  causes  have  been  theoretically  recognized  by  all 
of  them;  and  though  in  Mr.  Mill's  System  of  Logic,  the 
doctrine  of  causation  receives  full  and  critical  exposition; 
yet  by  him,  as  by  the  Utilitarians  generally,  there  has  not 
been  that  study  ol   physical  science   at   large   which  con- 


90  A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  [1862. 

duces  to  an  ever-present  and  vivid  consciousness  of  cause. 
In  the  absence  of  discipline  in  physical  science  the  search 
for  causes  does  not  become  a  mental  habit.  Hence  the 
contented  resting  in  empirical  utilitarianism.  It  was 
thought  that  the  results  of  this  or  that  kind  of  action 
are  to  be  ascertained  by  induction;  and  it  was  tacitly 
assumed  that  nothing  more  remains  to  be  done.  That  the 
connexions  between  conduct  and  consequence  in  every  case 
are  causal,  and  that  ethical  theory  remains  but  rudimentary 
until  the  causal  relations  are  generalized,  was  a  truth  not 
recognized  by  them. 

Christmas  of  this  year,  as  of  the  preceding  year,  was 
spent  by  my  father  with  me  in  London.  Though  now  over 
seventy  he  remained  in  fair  vigour ;  having,  indeed,  in  a 
considerable  degree  recovered  from  the  nervous  disorder  of 
his  middle  life.  I  find  by  letters  that  the  dread  of  a  cold 
journey  was  the  chief  diflSculty  to  be  got  over  in  persuading 
him  to  come  to  town. 

Concerning  my  social  life  at  this  time,  which  this  visit 

of   my    father   fitly   introduces,   there   seems    nothing   to 

record  save  some  accessions  to  my  circle  of  friends.     One 

of  these  is  recalled  by  the  following  passage  in  a  letter 

home,  dated  25th  February,  1863. 

"  I  dined  on  Saturday  with  some  new  friends  named  Huth,  who  were  great 
friends  of  Mr.  Buckle's.  They  are  very  nice,  intelligent  people.  Dr. 
Carpenter  was  one  of  the  guests ;  and  also  Mr.  Hare,  the  author  of  the 
scheme  of  representation  that  has  excited  so  much  attention." 

All  members  of  the  family  were  worshippers  of  Mr.  Buckle, 
Two  of  the  sons  were  with  him  in  the  East  when  he  caught 
the  fever  which  caused  his  untimely  death.  Mr.  Henry 
Huth,  the  father,  an  amiable  man  whose  lack  of  animal 
energy  led  to  a  retiring  manner  and  preference  for  a  quiet 
life,  was  noted  for  his  magnificent  collection  of  rare 
books.  This  is  now  in  the  possession  of  his  son,  Mr. 
Alfred  Huth,  who  has  become  known  as  the  biographer 


JEt.  42.]       A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  91 

of  Buckle,  and  also  by  his  work  on  the  results  of  marriages 
between  relations. 

The  other  addition  to  my  social  circle  was  a  gentleman 
with  a  remarkable  name — Mr.  Osmond  De  Beauvoir 
Priaulx ;  the  author  of  a  work  entitled  Questiones  Mosaicse. 
He  was  famed  for  giving  sumptuous  dinners  to  somewhat 
select  parties.  Buckle  had  been  a  frequent  guest.  On  the 
occasion  of  my  first  dinner  at  his  house,  there  were,  among 
others  less  known,  Mr.  Higgins,  at  that  time  distinguished 
as  a  writer  of  slashing  letters  in  The  Times  signed  "  Jacob 
Omnium;  "  Mr.  Gr.  S.  Venables,  a  Parliamentary  barrister, 
and  a  writer  of  leaders  in  The  Saturday  Review  and  in 
The  Times,  who,  I  have  been  told,  had  somewhat  disap- 
pointed his  friends :  his  University  career  having  raised 
great  expectations.  Then  there  was  Erasmus  Darwin,  a 
brother  of  Charles  Darwin,  too  feeble  in  health  to  display 
his  powers.  Thackeray,  too,  was  one  of  the  party. 
Neither  then  nor  on  other  occasions  when  I  met  him,  did 
he  display  his  powers  in  any  way.  The  share  he  took  in 
conversation  was  not  large;  and  in  what  he  did  say,  so 
far  as  I  can  remember,  no  sign  of  wit  or  humour  was 
given.  I  have  heard  that  he  could  be  a  lively  companion ; 
but  it  seems  possible  that  usually  when  in  company  he  was 
occupied  in  observing  traits  of  character  and  manner.  A 
painter  of  human  nature  as  variously  manifested  must 
ordinarily  be  more  a  listener  than  a  talker. 

Mr.  Priaulx  was  called  by  his  friends  an  intellectual 
sybarite;  and  while  one  of  these  words  was  justified  by 
the  character  of  his  parties,  the  other  was  justified  by  the 
quality  of  his  dinners,  which  differed  from  other  dinners, 
even  of  an  elaborate  kind,  in  that  they  had  always  a  good 
deal  of  the  unexpected  :  there  were  unusual  dishes.  Various 
choice  wines,  too,  eight  or  ten  in  kind,  came  round  in  the 
course  of  dinner  and  dessert ;  of  which  the  Chateau  Yquem 
was  always  looked  forward  to  by  the  guests  as  yielding  the 
culminating  pleasure  of  the  feast. 


92  A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  [1863. 

Before  the  end  of  March,  letters  show  a  change  of 
address  :  I  was  in  my  old  quarters  in  Bloomsbury  Square, 
where  I  suppose  I  was  tempted  back  by  an  offer  of  the 
accommodation  I  needed.  Later  on  in  April  there  is  a 
reference  to  another  of  my  visits  to  Standish,  where  it 
appears  that  I  enjoyed  myself  as  usual  and  derived  benefit. 

This  season  seems  to  have  had  no  relapse  from  my 
ordinary  abnormal  state  of  health.  Sleeping,  now  as  ever 
a  chief  dijBBculty,  had  been  improved  by  a  course  recom- 
mended ;  as  witness  the  following  paragraph. 

"  I  have  recently  been  profiting  considerably  by  the  advice  of  a  French 
physician — a  Dr.  de  Mussy  to  whom  Huxley  sent  me.  He  has  prescribed 
frequent  warm  baths — three  or  more  times  in  the  week,  with  the  view  of 
improving  my  sleeping.     I  have  decidedly  slept  the  better  for  them." 

Here  let  me  add,  for  the  instruction  of  the  sleepless,  that 
some  years  later  Dr.  de  Mussy  told  me  he  had  modified 
his  opinion  respecting  the  efficacy  of  warm  baths  as 
soporifics;  for  he  had  met  with  cases  in  which,  though 
taken  at  a  temperature  below  blood  heat  (as  they  should 
always  be),  they  produced  wakefulness  instead  of  sleepiness. 
That  under  some  conditions  they  do  this,  I  can  myself 
testify ;  for,  many  years  after,  owing  I  suppose  to  some 
change  in  my  constitutional  state,  this  reverse  effect  was 
produced  upon  me,  so  that  I  dare  not  take  a  warm  bath 
late  in  the  day.  Unexpected  as  this  experience  was,  it 
was  congruous  with  a  statement  once  made  to  me  by  the 
late  Dr.  Bence  Jones  respecting  other  medicinal  agents. 
Speaking  of  drugs,  he  said  that  there  is  scarcely  one 
which  may  not  under  different  conditions  produce  opposite 
effects.  Certainly  we  have  familiar  proof  that  this  is  the 
case  with  alcohol,  tea,  coffee,  tobacco  and  opium. 

This  mention  of  opium  reminds  me  that  I  had  for  some 
time  previously  made  occasional  use  of  it — commonly  under 
the  form  of  morphia.  With  me  sleep  brought  sleep  and 
wakefulness  was  habitually  followed  by  more  wakefulness  ; 
so  that  after  a  series  of  specially  bad  nights  it  had  been  my 
practice  to  break  the  morbid  habit,  and  re-establish  the 


JEt.  43.]       A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  93 

periodicity  of  sleep  by  artificial  means.  Sometimes  it  was 
weeks,  sometimes  months,  before  I  again  had  recourse  to 
one  or  other  preparation  of  opium.  That  the  average 
result  was  beneficial  is  an  opinion  which  I  here  express, 
because  there  is,  I  think,  an  undue  fear  of  opium ;  both  in 
the  minds  of  medical  men  and  in  those  of  men  at  large. 
Every  medicinal  agent  is  liable  to  abuse ;  and  when  it  has 
been  greatly  abused  there  arises  a  reaction,  which  goes 
almost  to  the  extent  of  forbidding  its  use.  In  respect  of 
opium  a  re-reaction  is  needed. 

Health  not  much  disturbed,  and  work  but  little  inter- 
rupted, enabled  me  to  issue  three  numbers  of  my  serial 
during  the  winter  and  subsequent  season :  the  last  of  them, 
however,  number  IX,  detaining  me  until  after  the  middle 
of  July.  I  then  left  London  for  my  holiday.  It  was  not  a 
complete  holiday ;  for,  as  usual,  I  took  with  me  work  for 
revision.  In  this  case  it  was  the  revision  of  the  various 
essays  published  during  1858,  1859  and  1860,  which  I  had 
decided  to  collect  in  a  volume. 

My  first  resting  place  was  Scarborough,  to  which  place 
I  went  to  spend  some  time  with  my  mother,  who 
was  staying  there  in  the  hope  of  recovering  from  that 
debility  which  had  been  for  years  coming  on.  She 
exemplified  the  evils  resulting  from  carelessness  of  self, 
accompanying  undue  care  of  others.  Writers  on  morals  do 
not  recognize  the  fact  that  excess  of  self-sacrifice  is  not 
only  a  cause  of  suffering  to  the  individual  making  it,  but 
often  becomes  a  cause  of  suffering  to  relatives;  and  if 
this  fact  is  unrecognized  by  those  who  undertake  to  set 
forth  the  principles  of  right  conduct,  still  less  is  it  recog- 
nized by  the  world  at  large — or,  if  recognized,  it  is  not 
in  such  way  as  overtly  to  influence  conduct.  A  strong 
sense  of  duty,  partly  natural  and  partly  traceable  to 
religious  convictions,  had,  for  years,  been  leading  my  mother 
gradually  to  undermine  her  system  by  taxing  it  too  much ; 
and  now  there  was  beginning  that  constitutional  prostration 


94  A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  [1863. 

which  presently  made  her  a  confirmed  invalid.  Many  of 
my  letters  contain  expostulations,  but  they  were  useless. 
She  was  one  of  those  who  exemplify  the  truth  that  women^s 
natures,  and  by  implication  their  beliefs,  become  fixed  at 
an  earlier  period  of  life  than  do  those  of  men;  and  her 
amiable  errors  were  continued  in  spite  of  all  reasoning. 

After  ten  days  at  Scarborough  I  turned  my  face  north- 
wards, and  the  first  indication  of  my  whereabouts  is  given 
in  a  letter  which  says  : — "  We  have  just  arrived  safely  and 
well  at  Oban  after  a  fine  day's  voyage."  At  first  I  was 
puzzled  by  the  "  we " ;  for  I  had  forgotten  a  tour  in  the 
North  West  Highlands  with  Lott  and  one  of  his  Derby 
friends,  well  known  to  me  also.  Starting  next  day  by  fast 
steamer  {the  Mountaineer  I  think  it  was  in  those  days),  and 
taking  our  course  down  the  Sound  of  Mull  and  up  the 
Sleat  Sound,  we  skirted  the  north  east  shore  of  Skye  in 
the  afternoon ;  and,  abandoning  our  original  project  of 
exploring  Skye,  went  on  to  Gairloch.  The  following  morning 
we  took  our  course  by  the  side  of  Loch  Maree  to  Kinloch- 
ewe :  reversing  my  walk  of  the  previous  year.  A  dog-cart 
took  us  next  day  as  far  as  Loch  Torridon,  whence,  finding  a 
fit  guide,  we  took  our  way  through  the  mountains  to  the  shore 
of  Loch  Carron — a  wild  and  interesting  climb — and  put  up 
at  Jeantown.  Balmacarra  was  our  next  stopping  place ; 
and  the  day  being  Sunday  we,  conforming  to  the  custom 
of  the  house,  in  common  with  all  other  guests,  whether  in 
private  rooms  or  not,  dined  at  the  table  d'hote.  There  were 
present  on  this  occasion  Mr,  and  Mrs.  Cardwell  (as  they 
then  were)  and  Mr.  Robert  Lowe  (as  he  then  was) :  they  and 
ourselves  forming  the  party.  Nothing  in  the  conversation 
was  remarkable  enough  to  be  remembered.  A  steam-boat 
carried  us  to  Glenelg  the  next  morning.  There  my  friends 
left  me,  and,  prompted  by  my  recommendation,  explored 
Loch  Hourne  and  Glengarry  on  the  way  home;  while  I 
remained  till  the  20th,  when  I  became  due  at  Ardtornish. 

Thereupon  commenced  a  month  more  pleasant  to  me  in 


iET.  43.]       A  VOLUME  OF  THE  ^/OXOG^r.  95 

recollection  than  the  details  of  its  doings  would  be  to  the 
reader  in  narration.  Two  extracts  from  letters  written  at 
the  time,  may,  however,  be  fitly  given.  One  dated  early 
in  September  says  : — 

"  Some  guests  have  lately  arrived — Mr.  Charles  Buxton,  m.p.,  his  wife 
and  two  sons,  and  Mr.  Godfrey  Lushington.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  Buxton 
I  knew,  but  have  not  seen  them  of  late,  and  am  glad  to  renew  the 
acquaintance.     .     .     . 

' '  I  have  found  some  treasures  in  the  shape  of  plants  which  illustrate  my 
views  of  morphology.  This  is  the  more  fortunate  because  I  had  lost  the 
specimens  I  before  possessed." 

The  Mr.  Charles  Buxton,  m.p.,  mentioned  above,  an 
amiable  and  intelligent  man,  was  one  of  the  sons  of  Sir 
Thomas  Fowell  Buxton,  of  anti-slavery  fame.  He  did  not 
survive  for  many  years  :  not  having,  I  think,  the  strength 
needed  for  bearing  the  stress  of  public  life  joined  with 
that  of  business  and  social  excitements.  His  face  bore 
the  expression  of  chronic  fatigue.  One  of  the  sons,  who 
were  at  that  time  boys,  now  sits  in  Parliament  for  Poplar. 
A  letter  of  the  17th  September  says  : — 

"  I  am  proposing  to  take  my  leave  of  the  Smiths  this  day  week  :  they  have 
sundry  visitors  coming  in  a  few  days  after  and  will  be  quite  full.     .     .     . 
"I  am  quite  well — better  than  I   have  been  for  years.      My  sleeping  ia 
getting  more  normal  and  I  hope  I  am  now  beyond  the  liability  to  relapses. 
I  have  caught  four  more  salmon  since  I  wrote — three  in  one  day." 

Before  the  end  of  the  month  I  was  at  home,  and  re- 
mained there  through  a  good  part  of  October  :  no  doubt 
partially  occupied  in  seeing  through  the  press  the  Essays 
to  be  presently  re-published. 

I  had  but  just  settled  myself  in  Bloomsbury  Square, 
and  had  scarcely  got  into  full  work,  when  I  left  town 
again  for  a  short  time.  The  occasion  was  a  visit  to  Lord 
Houghton  at  Fryston  Hall,  his  country  place  near  Ponte- 
fract — a  town  for  which  he  sat  in  Parliament  while  he  was 
known  as  Richard  Monckton  Milnes.  I  found  a  circle  of  a 
dozen    agreeable    people,   belonging   to    the   political    and 


96  A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  [1863. 

literary  worlds,  only  two  of  wliom  I  knew  personally. 
The  surroundings  of  Fryston  have  greatly  injured  it  as  a 
residence ;  nor  is  the  country  around  picturesque.  But 
the  few  days  spent  there  on  this  occasion,  and  on  subsequent 
occasions,  were  made  pleasant  by  the  social  indoor  life. 

I  had  known  our  host  as  Mr.  Milnes  since  1851,  and  had 
more  recently,  in  London,  attended  some  of  his  dinners  and 
literary  breakfasts — widely  known  as  gatherings  of  nota- 
bilities of  all  kinds  holding  all  opinions.  While  partly  his 
catholicity,  it  was  perhaps  partly  his  constitutional  love  of 
excitement  which  prompted  him  to  extend  his  hospitality 
to  every  one  who  had  made  a  name,  and  thus  to  collect 
these  incongruous  assemblies ;  for  he  seemed  unable  to  lead 
a  quiet  life.  Even  in  his  later  years,  when  increasing  age 
might  have  been  expected  to  have  a  sedative  influence,  he 
was  ever  moving  hither  and  thither,  to  be  present  at 
gatherings,  gi'ave  and  gay,  of  various  natures.  About  his 
views  one  gained  but  an  undecided  impression.  Whether 
it  was  the  effect  of  mental  restlessness  or  whether  it  was 
the  effect  of  readiness  to  listen  to  ideas  of  all  kinds,  how- 
ever extreme,  there  seemed  in  him  an  unsettled  state  of 
opinion  upon  most  things. 

There  were  exceptions,  however,  to  his  restlessness.  I 
heard  of  one  at  least.  A  few  years  later  than  the  time  of 
which  I  am  speaking  the  English  disciples  of  M.  Comte 
decided  to  commence  Sunday  services  appropriate  to  their 
creed :  Dr.  Congreve,  who  was  the  leader  of  the  body, 
being  priest.  Some  curiosity  was  excited  for  a  time  among 
those  who  were  willing  to  listen  to  new  opinions.  One  of 
such,  on  being  asked  what  he  had  seen,  replied  that  there 
was  a  regular  service,  having  orderly  forms.  "  In  fact," 
said  he,  "  it  was  just  like  a  church  :  there  was  Lord 
Houghton  fast  asleep." 

He  was  extremely  pleasant  and  amusing  as  a  companion. 
His  information  about  people  and  things,  was  copious; 
and  he  abounded  in  anecdotes,  which  he  narrated  with  an 


^T.  43.]       A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  97 

enjoyment  that  was  infectious.  Full  of  kindly  feeling,  too, 
he  was.  From  many  sides  I  have  heard  references  to  his 
benevolent  help  quietly  given.  He  was  genuinely  desirous 
of  aiding  whatever  he  thought  good. 

Since  the  publication  of  First  Principles,  Professor 
Youmans  had  been,  as  before,  active  in  looking  after  my 
affairs  in  the  United  States  :  among  other  things  having,  as 
I  heard  (not  from  himself  but  from  Mr.  Silsbee),  written  over 
a  hundred  letters  to  negligent  and  defaulting  subscribers. 

He  was  anxious  that  my  already-published  works  should 
be  circulated  in  the  United  States.  The  Messrs.  Appleton 
had,  I  believe,  undertaken  the  risk  of  reprinting  the  Educa- 
tion ;  but,  I  presume,  did  not  think  that  the  reprinting  of  the 
two  volumes  of  Essays  and  of  Social  Statics  would  pay. 
Under  these  circumstances  he  proposed  a  scheme,  the 
nature  of  which  may  be  gathered  from  the  response  I  made 
to  it,  dated  December  17,  1863,  which  ran  as  follows  : — 

"I  must  really  protest  against  the  amount  of  sacrifice  so  generously 
proposed  to  be  made  by  my  American  friends.  The  obligations  under  which 
you  have  placed  me,  and  to  which  you  have  been  lately  adding  so  greatly,  it 
has  been  beyond  my  power  to  avoid,  had  I  wished  to  avoid  them ;  but  the 
obligations  foreshadowed  in  your  last  letter,  are,  in  part,  such  as  I  can,  and 
must,  avoid.  If  my  American  friends,  moved  by  your  active  efforts,  agree  to 
take  upon  themselves  the  risk  of  re-publishing  some  of  my  writings — a  risk 
which  I  dare  not  run  myself — I  cannot  help  it ;  and  while  I  feel  somewhat 
uneasy  at  seeing  such  responsibilities  undertaken,  I  cannot  but  feel  a  con- 
siderable pleasure  in  finding  so  much  interest  manifested  in  the  success  of  my 
aims.  But  when  it  is  proposed  that  my  friends  should  supply  Messrs. 
Appleton  with  the  stereotype  plates,  and  that  I  should  begin  to  reap  the 
profits  of  the  reprint  from  the  outset,  as  seems  to  be  implied  by  your  ptatement 
of  the  arrangement,  I  must  decline  to  agree.  It  is,  I  think,  a  quite  sufficient 
generosity  on  their  part,  if  they  save  me  from  a  contingent  risk,  atti  give  me 
the  contingent  profit  after  their  expenses  have  been  paid." 

This  was,  I  believe,  the  course  eventually  adopted.     Funds 

were  raised  to  pay  the  cost  of  reprinting  the  several  volumes 

named,   and   after  those  who  furnished,  them   had   been 

recouped,  I  began  to  receive  a  royalty  on  all  copies  sold. 

The   topic  of  arrangements   for  the   publication  of  my 


98  A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  [1864. 

books  in  America  having  been  bere  incidentally  raised, 
I  may  fitly  add  what  has  further  to  be  said  about  it. 
During  all  subsequent  years  the  course  followed  was  this. 
A  duplicate  set  of  stereotype  plates  having  been,  in  each 
case,  cast  for  me  by  my  printers,  was  sent  to  New  York. 
From  these  Messrs.  Appleton  printed  the  American  edition, 
under  an  agreement  to  pay  me  a  royalty  of  15  per  cent,  ol 
the  retail  price  on  all  copies  sold  from  the  outset :  theii 
only  risk  being  the  cost  of  paper  and  press-work.  Oi 
course  a  considerable  sale  had  to  be  achieved  before  the 
returns  repaid  me  the  outlay  for  the  stereotype  plates. 
But  after  this  there  resulted  a  fair  profit.  To  this  arrange- 
ment, negotiated  for  me  by  my  friend  Youmans,  the  Messrs. 
Appleton  have  loyally  adhered. 

Of  occurrences  during  the  winter  and  subsequent  season, 
the  first  in  strict  chronological  order  should  have  been 
named  before  those  of  the  last  section,  which,  by  implica- 
tion, refer  to  it ;  namely,  the  publication  of  the  second  series 
of  Essays,  8fc.  This  occurred  at  the  end  of  November. 
There  is  little  to  be  said  about  it ;  for  so  far  as  I  remember 
scarcely  any  notice  was  taken  of  the  book,  and  none  of  my 
letters  mention  reviews  of  it.  Republished  essays  are 
generally  looked  coldly  upon  by  critics,  and  mine  were 
of  a  kind  to  excite,  in  nine  out  of  ten  among  them,  even 
less  warmth  of  reception  than  usual. 

The  year  ended  without  anything  more  worthy  of  remark 
than  that  my  father  came  to  town  to  visit  me  at  Christmas, 
and  that  some  time  in  January  I  returned  with  him  to 
Derby,  remaining  there  till  the  beginning  of  February. 
Incidents  of  succeeding  months  may  be  most  conveni- 
ently indicated  by  extracts  from  letters  home.  One  written 
on  March  26  says  : — 

Bain  has  sent  me  a  copy  of  the  second  edition  of  his  "  Senses  and  the 
Intellect,"  in  which  he  shows  much  generosity  of  feeling. 

This  passage  refers  to  the  great  candour  and  good  temper 


^T.  44]       A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  99 

with  whicB  he  received  the  criticisms  I  had  passed  upon 

the  first  edition  of  his  work,  and  the  readiness  shown  by 

him  to  modify  the  expression  of  his  views.    The  following 

paragraphs  are  from  a  letter  dated  April  25 : — 

The  Potters  have  taken  a  house  in  town  for  the  season,  and  I  have  seen 
something  of  them.     I  dine  with  them  again  next  Saturday. 
"I  seem  to  have  been  really  benefited  by  the  fit  of  excitement  I  had  a  while 
ago.     [The  cause  of  which  will  be  indicated  presently] .     I  bear  my  work 
very  conveniently,  and  can  do  more  reading  without  feeling  it. " 

About  this  time  Mr.    Potter  had  become  Chairman  of 

the  Great  Western  Railway  Company ;  and  Parliamentary 

business  made  it  needful  for  him  to  be  much  in  town.     The 

taking  of  a  London  house  for  the  season^  thus  initiated,  was 

continued  during  many  subsequent  years,  with  the  effect 

of  adding  to  my  social  pleasures,  and  to  those  far  preferable 

pleasures   yielded  by  a  family  circle  of   intimate  friends. 

The  next  extract,  which  is   from   a  letter  to  my  mother 

dated  May  18,  refers  to  some  kindred  gratifications. 

"  I  have  been  visiting  the  Lubbocks  a  good  deal  lately.  ...  I  have  post- 
poned going  to  spend  a  week  with  them  because  I  am  unable  at  present  to 
spare  the  time." 

On  May  27  I  wrote  to  my  father  respecting  anticipated 

arrangements  as  follows  : — 

"  I  shall  in  all  probability  go  to  Scotland.  Mr.  Smith  asked  me  to  do  so 
some  two  months  ago ;  and  though  the  invitation  wiU  need  renewal  when  the 
time  comes,  I  do  not  see  any  reason  to  doubt  that  it  will  be  renewed.  As  to 
your  own  movements  at  Midsummer,  I  do  not  see  why  you  should  not  do  as 
before.  At  any  rate,  you  can  join  me  here  in  town  during  the  latter  end  of 
June  and  the  beginning  of  July,  and  we  can  discuss  further  steps." 

I  may  also  fitly  quote  some  paragraphs  from  a  letter 
dated  June  9. 

"  I  got  the  American  papers  this  morning,  and  was  much  amused  with  some 
of  the  statements  in  the  biographical  notice.  Did  you  recognize  all  the  state- 
ments you  are  credited  with  ? 

"Enclosed  I  send  a  notice  of  the  "  Classification,"  and  some  other  things 
that  may  interest  you.  You  will  be  struck  by  the  continued  and  thoughtful 
kindness  of  my  friends  the  Lubbocks. 

"  I  am  quite  well  and  getting  on  satisfactorily  with  my  next  number.  Only 
yesterday  I  arrived  at  a  point  of  view  from  which  Darwin's  doctrine   of 

7* 


100  A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  [1864. 

"Natural  Selection"  is  seen  to  be  absorbed  into  the  general  theory  of 
Evolution  as  I  am  interpreting  it. " 

Some  explanation  is  called  for  by  the  last  paragrapli. 
Organic  evolution  being  a  part  of  Evolution  at  large, 
evidently  liad  to  be  interpreted  after  tbe  same  general 
manner — had  to  be  explained  in  physical  terms :  the 
changes  produced  by  functional  adaptation  (which  I  held 
to  be  one  of  the  factors)  and  the  changes  produced  by 
"  natural  selection/'  had  both  to  be  exhibited  as  resulting 
from  the  redistribution  of  matter  and  motion  everywhere 
and  always  going  on.  Natural  selection  as  ordinarily 
described,  is  not  comprehended  in  this  universal  redistribu- 
tion. It  seems  to  stand  apart  as  an  unrelated  process. 
The  search  for  congruity  led  first  of  all  to  perception  of 
the  fact  that  what  Mr.  Darwin  called  "  natural  selection/' 
might  more  literally  be  called  survival  of  the  fittest.  But 
what  is  survival  of  the  fittest,  considered  as  an  outcome  of 
physical  actions?  The  answer  presently  reached  was  this: — 
The  changes  constituting  evolution  tend  ever  towards  a 
state  of  equilibrium.  On  the  way  to  absolute  equilibrium 
or  rest,  there  is  in  many  cases  established  for  a  time, 
a  moving  equilibrium — a  system  of  mutually-dependent 
parts  severally  performing  actions  subserving  maintenance 
of  the  combination.  Every  living  organism  exhibits  such 
a  moving  equilibrium — a  balanced  set  of  functions  consti- 
tuting its  life ;  and  the  overthrow  of  this  balanced  set  of 
functions  or  moving  equilibrium  is  what  we  call  death. 
Some  individuals  in  a  species  are  so  constituted  that  their 
moving  equilibria  are  less  easily  overthrown  than  those  of 
other  individuals ;  and  these  are  the  fittest  which  survive, 
or,  in  Mr.  Darwin's  language,  they  are  the  select  which 
nature  preserves.  And  now  mark  that  in  thus  recognizing 
the  continuance  of  life  as  the  continuance  of  a  moving 
equilibrium,  early  overthrown  in  some  individuals  by 
incident  forces  and  not  overtlirown  in  others  until  after 
they  have  reproduced  the  species,  we  see  that  this  survival 


^T.44.1       A  VOLUME  OF  THE  ^JOZOG^r.  101 

and  multiplication  of  the  select,  becomes  conceivable  in 
purely  physical  terms,  as  an  indirect  outcome  of  a  complex 
form  of  the  universal  redistribution  of  matter  and  motion. 

Though  I  had  kept  up  well  during  the  season  there  came 
a  relapse  at  Midsummer,  caused  partly  by  extra  effort  in 
completing,  before  leaving  town,  the  number  of  my  serial 
then  issued  and  partly,  as  a  letter  confesses,  by  too  many 
social  excitements.  I  should  have  forgotten  this  relapse 
had  not  a  letter  shown  that  my  father  and  I  went  early  in 
July  to  Margate ;  and  this  would  not  have  recalled  the 
fact  that  I  was  much  out  of  order  had  there  not  resulted 
the  memory  of  an  incident  there.  Mr.  T.  S.  Baynes,  then 
candidate  for  the  professorship  at  St.  Andrews  which  he 
afterwards  held,  wished  for  a  testimonial  from  me.  I  had 
read  nothing  of  his,  and  dared  not  undertake  the  required 
amount  of  reading.  The  difficulty  was  solved  by  my  father, 
who  read  aloud  to  me  several  mornings  as  we  sat  in  a  nook 
under  the  cliff.  After  a  week's  stay  he  went  to  France, 
and  I  turned  my  face  northwards. 

Why  narrate  in  detail  my  doings  during  the  autumn  ? 
Accounts  of  this  kind  are  occupying  too  much  space.  Con- 
densation must  be  carried  as  far  as  consists  with  due 
indication  of  the  ways  in  which  my  leisure  times  were  spent. 

Derby,  of  course,  was  my  first  stopping  place.  After 
fetching  my  mother  home  from  Matlock  (she  could  not 
now  make  long  journeys)  and  after  spending  a  few  days 
with  her,  I  joiued  the  Lotta  at  Penmaenmaur  and  remained 
till  the  end  of  July.  Among  the  excursions  we  made  was 
an  ascent  of  Snowdon.  When  they  returned  home  I  went 
on  to  Scotland,  stopped  two  days  at  Corran  Ferry,  seated 
myself  for  a  time  at  Fort  William,  and  from  that  place 
took  rambles :  one  of  them  being  up  Glen  Nevis  as  far  as 
the  amphitheatre  into  which  it  widens,  another  being  by 
Glen  Spean  to  the  Brig  of  Roy  and  back.  Returning  as 
far  as  Oban,  I  found  that  the  looked  for  missive  from 
Ardtornish  had  not  arrived,  and  I  decided  to  spend  the 


102  A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  [1864. 

time  in  a  local  tour :  my  route  being  across  the  hills  to 
Port  Sonachan  on  Loch  Awe  j  thence  to  Inverary ;  thence 
through  Glen  Croe  to  Arrochar  on  Loch  Long ;  thence  to 
Tarbet,  Inverarnon  and  Tyndrum;  from  there  to  Dalmally; 
and  from  Dalmally  back  to  Oban :  six  days  being  thus 
occupied.  My  vexation  was  great  on  finding  that  the 
invitation  for  me  had  been  lying  in  the  Post  Office  since 
the  day  after  I  left.  Had  I  not  been  so  impatient  I  might 
have  had  Highland  enjoyments  along  with  charming 
friends  instead  of  being  a  lone  wanderer  among  mountains. 
However,  the  prospect  of  a  month^s  pleasures  before  me 
soon  banished  the  thought  of  some  pleasures  lost.  I 
remained  at  Ardtornish  until  the  middle  of  September  and 
then  left  for  Derby.  After  some  throe  weeks  there  I 
departed  for  London  early  in  October. 

A  letter  saying  that  I  was  about  to  fix  myself  at 
88  Kensington  Gardens  Square,  gives  a  hopeful  account  of 
this  new  abode ;  which,  internally  not  unsatisfactory,  was 
externally  much  more  salubrious  than  my  abodes  of  several 
previous  years.  Here  I  revised  the  last  proofs  of  my 
twelfth  number,  which  was  sent  to  subscribers  before  the 
close  of  the  month :  the  issue  to  the  public  of  the  Principles 
of  Biology,  Yol.  I,  taking  place  shortly  after. 

What  am  I  to  say  about  this  second  instalment  of  "  The 
System  of  Philosophy,"  as  it  was  at  that  time  named  ?  It 
seems  absurd  to  pass  over  without  remark  the  volume  which 
gives  the  title  to  the  chapter ;  even  though  the  title  merely 
serves  to  indicate  my  special  occupation  while  there  passed 
those  two  years  of  my  life  which  the  chapter  narrates.  On 
the  other  hand  it  appears  needless  to  give  any  account 
of  the  contents  of  a  book  which  is  accessible  to  any  one 
who  wishes  to  learn  them ;  and  it  would  be  out  of  taste  to 
signalize  those  ideas  in  it  which  seem  to  me  of  chief  value. 
General  comments,  however,  may  not  be  inappropriate. 

Something  by  way  of   apology  for  venturing  to   deal 


^T.  44.J        A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  103 

with  so  vast  and  so  difficult  a  subject  seems  called  for — a 
subject  too  vast  for  any  man  fully  to  acquaint  himself 
with  as  a  whole — so  vast  that  even  one  of  its  two  great 
divisions  is  more  than  a  diligent  student  can  master — so 
vast  that  even  a  subdivision  furnishes  matter  for  investiga- 
tion sufficient  to  occupy  a  life.  Though  in  boyhood  I  had 
been  interested  in  Natural  History  at  large,  and  more 
especially  in  Entomology ;  and  though  at  that  time  and  in 
later  years  I  was  a  constant  reader  of  medical  periodicals 
and  books,  from  which  some  knowledge  of  anatomy 
and  physiology  was  gathered — though  I  had  for  some  time 
studied  Biology  with  a  purpose;  and  though  a  certain 
natural  aptitude  for  laying  hold  of  cardinal  facts  enabled 
me  gradually  to  acquire  from  what  I  read  better  general 
conceptions  of  biological  truths  than  most  might  have 
acquired;  yet  it  is  manifest  that  I  was  inadequately 
equipped  for  the  task.  But  I  had  undertaken  to  set  forth 
a  general  theory  of  Evolution  as  exhibited  throughout  all 
orders  of  existences.  Whoever  carries  out  such  an  under- 
taking must  either  have  a  knowledge  of  all  the  concrete 
sciences  greater  than  any  man  has  ever  had,  or  he  must 
deal  with  some  sciences  of  which  his  knowledge  is  but 
partial,  if  not  very  imperfect.  Either  the  thing  must  not 
be  done  at  all  or  it  must  be  thus  done. 

In  my  own  case  the  presumption  was  diminished  by  the 
consciousness  that  friends  who  sympathized  with  my  aims, 
and  whose  competence  in  their  respective  departments  was 
beyond  question,  were  prepared  to  aid  me  by  their  criticisms. 
Professor  Huxley  kindly  agreed  to  read  through  my  proofs 
for  the  purpose  of  checking  statements  of  zoological  facts ; 
while  Dr.  (now  Sir  Joseph)  Hooker  did  the  like  for 
botanical  statements.  On  the  whole  the  result  seems  to 
have  shown  that  the  attempt  was  not  unwarranted. 

In  one  respect,  indeed,  I  had,  as  an  outsider,  studying 
the  phenomena  of  organic  life  as  phenomena  of  Evolution  at 
large,  a  certain  kind  of  advantage  over  specialists,  dealing 


104  A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  [1864. 

after  the  ordinary  manner  witli  their  respective  separate 
subjects — plant-life  and  animal-life.  The  man  of  science 
who  limits  himself  to  a  department^  is  apt  to  overlook,  or 
else  not  sufficiently  to  appreciate,  those  most  general  truths 
which  the  phenomena  he  studies  display  in  common  with 
other  groups  of  phenomena.  The  truths  exhibited  by  plant- 
life  and  animal-life  in  common,  which  neither  the  pure 
botanist  nor  the  pure  zoologist  is  called  upon  to  recognize 
at  all,  are  really  truths  of  the  profoundest  meaning ;  and 
though  in  most  cases  there  is,  on  the  part  of  each,  such 
acquaintance  with  the  sister  science  as  discloses  some,  at 
any  rate,  of  these  most  general  truths,  yet  while  the  atten- 
tion of  each  is  almost  wholly  absorbed  by  his  speciality, 
these  most  general  truths  are  relegated  to  the  background 
of  thought  instead  of  occupying  its  foreground.  Still  more 
does  inattention  to  orders  of  phenomena  remote  in  kind, 
result  in  either  unconsciousness  or  inadequate  consciousness 
of  the  truths  common  to  all  these  orders  of  phenomena  and 
the  phenomena  of  life — truths  of  wider  significance  than 
those  which  the  phenomena  of  life  themselves  display.  Of 
course  the  study  of  biological  facts,  not  from  the  point  of 
view  of  Organic  Evolution  only,  but  from  the  point  of  view 
of  Evolution  at  large,  inorganic,  organic,  and  super-organic, 
entailed  the  placing  of  these  widest  truths  in  conspicuous 
positions :  thus  conducing  to  a  more  philosophical  con- 
ception of  biological  facts. 

One  further  remark  to  be  made  is  that  this  treatment  of 
the  subject  led  incidentally  to  a  method  which  proved  of 
much  service.  While  the  ultimate  purpose  was  to  interpret 
the  general  facts  of  structure  and  function  as  results  of 
Evolution,  it  was  manifest  that,  as  a  preliminary  step,  it 
was  needful  to  specify  and  illustrate  these  general  facts ; 
and  needful  also  to  set  forth  those  physical  and  chemical 
properties  of  organic  matter  which  are  implied  in  the 
interpretation.  That  is  to  say,  there  had  to  be  exhibited 
the  Data  of  Biology  and  the  Inductions  of  Biology.     Some 


^.T.  44.]       A  VOLUME  OF  THE  BIOLOGY.  105 

one  has  remarked  tliat  in  philosophizing  much  depends 
upon  rightly  putting  a  question  to  Nature  ;  and  in  this  case 
the  deliberate  inquiry  what  are  the  antecedent  truths  taken 
for  granted  in  Biology,  and  what  are  the  biological  truths 
which,  apart  from  theory,  may  be  regarded  as  established 
by  observation,  proved  of  great  advantage.  Subsequently, 
when  dealing  with  Psychology,  with  Sociology,  and  with 
Ethics,  a  like  course  of  procedure  yielded  like  advantages. 

Concerning  the  reception  of  the  work  there  is  little  to  be 
said  :  the  reason  being  that  little  notice  was  taken  of  it. 
In  1864,  not  one  educated  person  in  ten  or  more  knew 
the  meaning  of  the  word  Biology;  and  among  those  who 
knew  it,  whether  critics  or  general  readers,  few  cared 
to  know  anything  about  the  subject.  Probably  in  many 
cases  the  volume  received  hardly  as  much  attention  as  is 
implied  by  that  reviewing  humorously  described  as  cutting 
the  leaves  and  smelling  the  paper  knife.  One  notice 
I  may  refer  to,  partly  as  being  typical  and  partly  because 
of  its  unconscious  drollery.  In  The  Athenseum  of  5  Nov- 
ember, 1864,  a  paragraph  concerning  the  book  commenced 
thus  : — "  This  is  but  one  of  two  volumes,  and  the  two  but 
part  of  a  larger  work  :  we  can  therefore  but  announce  it."  If 
we  imagine  the  critic,  many  years  after,  to  have  had  before 
him  the  "  System  of  Philosophy  "  as  finished,  he  might  with 
much  greater  cogency  have  said  : — "  Here  are  ten  volumes 
on  five  different  subjects,  which  it  is  manifestly  impossible 
for  us  to  review.  We  can  therefore  but  announce  them." 
The  argument  is  neat  and  conclusive : — This  is  but  a  part 
and  cannot  be  noticed.  This  complete  work  is  too  big  and 
varied  for  notice.     Consequently  it  must  all  pass  unnoticed. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

A  DIGRESSION. 
1864     ^t.  43. 

Chronologically  placed,  the  incidents  to  be  narrated  in 
this  chapter  should  have  been  narrated  some  distance  back 
in  the  preceding  chapter ;  for  instead  of  belonging  to  the 
close  of  1864,  they  belong  to  its  opening.  But  the 
narrative  would  have  been  confused  had  I  adhered  strictly 
to  the  order  of  occurrence.  I  have  thought  it  better 
to  make  of  these  detached  incidents  the  matter  for  a 
detached  chapter. 

Ten  years  had  elapsed  since,  in  the  essay  on  the  "  Genesis 
of  Science,"  I  had  discussed  and  rejected  the  classification 
of  the  sciences  proposed  by  M.  Comte.  In  the  course  of 
the  criticism  to  which  the  first  part  of  the  essay  was 
devoted,  I  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  sciences  do  not 
admit  of  serial  arrangement,  whether  considered  logically 
in  their  natures  or  historically  in  their  developments ;  and 
I  expressed  the  further  opinion  that  they  stand  in  relations 
of  divergence  and  re-divergence,  which  may  be  symbolized 
by  the  branches  of  a  tree.  More  than  once  during  these 
ten  years,  I  had  made  attempts  to  represent  on  paper  their 
ramifying  relations,  but  without  success :  none  of  the 
diagrams  I  made  came  anywhere  near  satisfying  me.  But 
now,  my  attention  having  been  again  drawn  to  the  subject 
by  seeing  these  diagrams,  my  thoughts  took,  it  seems,  a 
new  direction,  and  led  me  to  recognize  those  fundamental 


/Et.  43.]  A  DIGRESSION.  107 

distinctions  which  divide  the  great  groups  of  sciences,  and 
determine  the  classification  of  them. 

There  is  a  family  of  sciences  which  severally  undertake 
to  give  accounts  of  individualized  objects — not  objects 
which,  like  fragments  of  stone,  are  in  some  or  many 
respects  indefinite,  but  objects  which  are  definable,  and 
are  known  either  as  solitary  individuals  or  as  individual 
members  of  a  species.  Be  it  nebula,  star,  the  sun,  a  planet 
or  a  satellite,  each  of  the  things  Astronomy  concerns  itself 
with  is  an  identifiable  individual.  So  is  the  Earth  with 
which  Geology  deals;  and  so  are  all  plants  and  animals. 
So  in  a  sense  are  minds;  for  though  not  visible  entities, 
they  are  coherent  and  organized  groups  of  functions 
exhibited  by  certain  entities;  and  each  of  them  is 
individualized  as  belonging  to  one  or  other  kind  of 
creature,  and,  in  a  minor  degree,  to  one  or  other  sample  of 
it.  And  so  it  is  with  societies.  Each  of  them  is  a  more  or 
less  distinctly  incorporated  whole,  individualized  by  its 
structural  traits  as  well  as  by  its  name  and  locality.  More- 
over, every  science  of  this  class  is  like  the  others  in  the 
respect  that  it  aims  to  give  an  exhaustive  account  of  the 
object  or  objects  forming  its  subject-matter.  Nor  is  this 
all.  It  aims  also  to  give  an  account  of  the  ways  in  which 
each  of  them  became  what  it  is — to  give  a  history  of  the 
transformations  through  which  it  has  passed.  Astronomy, 
Geology,  Biology,  Psychology,  and  Sociology,  may  in  fact 
all  of  them  be  properly  called  Natural  Histories ;  though  in 
current  speech  a  sub-division  of  one  monopolizes  the  name. 

Devoid  of  these  traits,  the  sciences  forming  another 
family  have  in  common  certain  other  traits.  Mechanics, 
Physics,  and  Chemistry,  none  of  them  treat  of  definitely 
individualized  objects.  The  forces  with  which  Mechanics 
is  concerned  are  not  tangible  or  visible  entities  at  all; 
nor,  in  formulating  their  laws,  is  absolute  quantity  of  any 
moment :  relative  quantity  only  enters  into  the  inquiry. 
Similarly,  the  phenomena  of  Heat,  Light,  and  Electricity 


108  A  DIGRESSION.  [1864. 

are  generalized  without  reference  to  specialized  portions  or 
particular  amounts :  the  characters  which  give  individuality 
are  absent.  The  like  holds  with  Chemistry.  In  their 
gaseous  forms  the  matters  it  deals  with  can  scarcely  be  said 
to  have  tangibility  or  visibility ;  in  their  liquid  forms  they 
cannot  be  said  to  be  individualized ;  and  though,  in  their 
solid  forms,  fragments  of  them  have  shapes  and  sizes  by 
which  they  can  be  recognized,  these  are  irrelevant  to  those 
truths  respecting  molecular  constitutions,  combining  pro- 
portions, and  modes  of  action,  which  Chemistry  sets  forth. 
Moreover  these  sciences  have  the  peculiarity  that  they 
respectively  treat  of  matters  and  forces,  not  as  they  exist 
in  actual  objects  and  actual  motions,  but  as  separated,  so 
far  as  may  be,  from  one  another — from  impurities  and 
from  perturbing  actions.  And  once  more,  they  have,  by 
consequence,  the  peculiarity  that  the  truths  they  express 
are  partially  ideal :  the  atomic  weights  and  combining 
equivalents  of  the  chemist  are  not  verified  absolutely  by 
experiments,  for  impurities  cannot  be  entirely  got  rid  of ; 
and  no  law  of  motion  or  action  formulated  by  the  physicist 
is  ever  fulfilled  completely,  because  interferences  can  never 
be  wholly  escaped. 

Yet  more  sharply  marked  off  from  both  of  these  groups 
of  sciences  than  they  are  from  one  another,  is  a  third  group 
of  sciences.  This  third  group  is  not  concerned  at  all  with 
the  real,  but  with  the  purely  ideal.  Though  Logic  and 
Mathematics  habitually  afiirm  truths  respecting  existences, 
yet  they  are  in  no  case  concerned  with  the  existences 
themselves,  but  only  with  certain  of  their  aspects  considered 
as  dissociated  from  them.  Logic  has  to  do  with  the 
exclusions,  inclusions  and  over-lappings  of  classes  of  exist- 
ences, considered  as  distinguishable  from  one  another  by 
marks;  and  it  cares  neither  what  the  existences  are  nor 
what  the  marks  are.  The  units  with  which  arithmetic  and 
the  calculus  at  large  deal,  often  stand  for  real  objects,  but 
the  reality  of  the  objects  is  quite  irrelevant  to  the  numerical 


iET.  43.]  A  DIGRESSION.  109 

truths  reached:  in  any  ordinary  calculation  when  one 
number  is  multiplied  or  divided  by  another,  there  is  no 
thought  of  the  things  which  the  numbers  represent.  So  it 
is  with  geometrical  truths.  These  are  concerned  with  the 
phenomena  of  pure  space.  Though  in  the  expression  of 
these  phenomena  visible  lines  are  habitually  used,  yet  that 
which  gives  the  lines  visibility  is  intentionally  ignored. 

That  the  conception  originally  presented  itself  to  me  in 
this  shape,  I  do  not  say ;  but  this  was  the  outcome  of  it. 
It  became  manifest  that,  as  above  shown,  the  sciences 
fall  into  three  groups — Concrete,  Abstract-Concrete,  and 
Abstract.  And  it  became  further  manifest  that  the  sciences 
within  each  group  are  to  be  arranged  in  the  order  of 
decreasing  generality. 

This  view  appeared  to  me  important  enough  to  merit 
prompt  publication ;  and  I  decided  to  suspend  my  ordinary 
work  that  I  might  write  an  essay  setting  it  forth. 

Whether  this  resolve  was  made  in  December  1863, 
while  my  father  was  with  me  in  town,  or  whether  it  was 
made  while  I  was  in  Derby  in  January  1864,  I  cannot 
decide.  But  it  was  evidently  in  one  or  the  other ;  for  the 
first  letter  in  which  reference  is  made  to  it,  implies  that  my 
father  had  already  been  told  about  it.    It  is  dated  February 

19,  and  runs  as  follows  : — 

"I  am  still  busy  with  the  Essay  on  Classification,  which  I  have  f  ally  written 
out,  and  have  nearly  done  revising.  It  works  out  far  more  completely  than 
I  imagined  it  would.  After  sundry  consultations  I  have  decided  not  to 
publish  it  in  a  periodical  but  to  publish  it  separately  as  a  pamphlet." 

This  decision  was,  I  fancy,  in  large  measure  a  forced 
one.  Inquiry  made  it  manifest  that  an  essay  so  purely 
philosophical  would  be  unreadable  by  nearly  all  who  take 
in  periodicals,  and  that  editorial  acceptance  was  scarcely 
to  be  expected.  There  was  no  alternative  but  to  undertake 
the  cost  of  printing  it  as  an  independent  publication. 

As  it  happened,  this  decision  was  fortunate ;  for  just  as 
the  pamphlet,  or  rather  hrochure,  was  on  the  eve  of  issue, 


110  A  DIGRESSION.  [1864. 

there  occurred  an  incident  wHicli  made  needful  an  emphatic 
repudiation  of  certain  doctrines  ascribed  to  me  ;  and  while 
the  issue  of  the  pamphlet  afforded  a  fit  opportunity  for  the 
repudiation^  a  postscript  to  it  afforded  a  fit  place. 

The  incident  in  question  was  the  appearance  of  a  review 
of  First  Principles,  by  M.  Auguste  Laugel,  in  the  Revue  des 
Deux  Mondes,  for  15  February  1864.  Highly  satisfactory 
to  me  as  the  review  was  in  many  respects,  there  was  one 
respect  in  which  it  was  unsatisfactory.  M.  Laugel  tacitly 
implied  that  I  belonged  to  a  school  of  thought  from  the 
doctrines  of  which  I  dissent :  having,  indeed,  to  sundry 
of  the  leading  doctrines,  a  profound  aversion. 

That  body  of  scientific  truths  and  methods  which  M.  Comte 
named  "  Positive  Philosophy,"  he  remarked,  was  analogous 
to  that  which  had  been  in  England  called  "  Natural 
Philosophy  " ;  and,  by  implication,  the  men  of  science  who 
had  been  natural  philosophers  were  regarded  by  him  as 
positive  philosophers.  This  naming,  or  re-naming,  led  to 
an  unfortunate  confusion.  The  philosophy  which  M.  Comte 
named  "  Positive  Philosophy,"  came  not  unnaturally  to  be 
spoken  of  by  his  disciples  as  his  philosophy ;  and  gradually 
among  them,  and  afterwards  among  the  undiscriminating 
public,  there  grew  up  the  notion  that  those  who  held  the 
doctrines  called  by  M.  Comte  "  Positive  Philosophy  "  were 
adherents  of  M.  Comte.  M.  Laugel,  if  he  did  not  fall  into 
this  error,  at  any  rate  used  language  which  seemed  to 
countenance  it.  He  spoke  of  me  as  imbued  with  certain 
ideas  (naming  especially  the  relativity  of  knowledge) 
characterizing  the  Philosophy  called  Positive ;  and  though 
these  ideas  were  manifestly  not  ideas  originated  by  M. 
Comte,  nor  claimed  by  him,  yet  by  calling  them  ideas  of  the 
Positive  Philosophy  which  I  accepted,  he  produced  the 
impression  that  I  was  an  adherent  of  M.  Comte. 

This  impression,   utterly  untrue    as    it  was,   I   thought 
it  needful  to  dissipate ;  and  the  greater   part   of  March 


^T.  43.]  A  DIGRESSION.  Ill 

I  occupied  in  setting  forth  my  antagonism  to  all  those 
doctrines  which  are  distinctive  of  the  Comtean  Philosophy. 
On  the  26  March  I  wrote  to  my  father  as  follows : — 

'•  I  have  just  got  rid  of  the  last  revises  of  my  pamphlet,  the  corrections 
and  modifications  of  which  have  caused  me  a  great  deal  of  bother  and  delay. 
I  expect  it  will  be  out  towards  the  end  of  next  week. 

' '  You  ask  about  my  health.  I  am  happy  to  say  that  I  am  well,  in  spite  of 
unfavourable  circumstances.  The  writing  the  Appendix  about  Oomte  brought 
on  a  fit  of  excitement,  moral  and  intellectual,  which  I  could  not  subdue.  I 
could  not  stop  thinking  day  or  night,  and  was  in  a  great  fright  lest  I  should 
have  a  serious  relapse.  However  I  escaped  it ;  and  now  seem  to  be  all  the 
better.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  fit  of  excitement  has  done  something 
towards  restoring  my  cerebral  circulation,  which,  ever  since  my  break-down, 
has  been  deficient." 

The  fit  of  excitement  here  referred  to  was  not  produced 
wholly  by  the  writing  of  this  postscript  setting  forth 
"  Reasons  for  dissenting  from  the  philosophy  of  M.  Comte." 
A  private  controversy  which  resulted  had  much  to  do  with 
it.  Wishing  to  be  quite  fair  to  Comte,  I  thought  it  desir- 
able that  the  proof  of  what  I  had  written  should  be  looked 
through  by  one  who  was  in  sympathy  with  him.  Lewes,  if 
not  a  disciple  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word,  was  a  partial 
adherent,  and  was  also  his  expositor.  I  asked  him  to 
oblige  me  by  his  criticisms,  which  he  willingly  did.  Some 
of  the  minor  ones  I  accepted  and  profited  by,  but  against 
the  major  ones  I  protested;  and  this  led  to  a  correspond- 
ence between  us  over  which  I  excited  myself  in  the  way 
indicated.  My  letter  of  chief  importance,  which  might 
fitly  have  formed  a  postscript  to  the  postscript,  will  be 
found  in  Appendix  B. 

The  inquiry  which  led  to  the  digression  described  in  this 
chapter  had  a  sequence.  More  important  than  the  theory 
of  the  Classification  of  the  Sciences  set  forth,  and  much 
more  important  than  the  definite  rejection  of  the  Comtean 
philosophy,  for  which  the  opportunity  was  afforded,  was 
•d  certain  incidental  result. 

When  arranging  the  divisions  and  sub-divisions  of  the 


J 12  A  DlGRESSlOif,  [1864. 

Concrete  Sciences,  and  setting  out  with,  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  under  their  most  general  aspects  they  all  give 
accounts  of  the  re-distributions  of  matter  and  motion,  there 
arose  the  need  for  stating  the  universal  trait  of  all  such 
re-distrihutions.  This  trait  is  that  increasing  integration 
of  matter  necessitates  a  concomitant  dissipation  of  motion, 
and  that  increasing  amount  of  motion  implies  a  concomitant 
disintegration  of  matter.  Perception  of  this  truth  threw 
a  new  light  on  the  phenomena  of  Evolution  at  large. 
Here  were  seen  the  processes  which  constitute  respectively 
Evolution  and  Dissolution  under  their  primordial  aspects. 
It  became  obvious  that  the  differentiations,  with  resulting 
increase  of  heterogeneity,  which  I  had  supposed  to  be 
primary  traits  of  Evolution,  were  but  secondary  traits. 
Clearly  the  first  law  must  be  the  law  in  conformity  with 
which  aggregates  are  formed  and  destroyed;  and  not 
the  law  in  conformity  with  which  their  complexities  of 
structure  arise. 

The  necessity  for  re-arranging  First  Principles  became 
manifest.  It  had  been  wrongly  organized  and  must  be 
re-organized.  This  task  I  decided  to  undertake  as  soon  as 
a  new  edition  seemed  likely  to  be  caUed  for. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

ANOTHER  VOLUME  OF  THE   BIOLOGY. 

1864-67.     ^t.  44-47. 

Letters  show  that  before  the  number  which  closed  the 
first  volume  of  the  Biology  was  issued,  I  had  commenced 
the  second  volume;  for  I  was  eager  to  get  completely 
worked  out  on  paper,  ideas  which  had  been  long  waiting 
for  expression.  A  letter  to  my  father  of  October  14, 
complaining  of  delays,  continues  : — 

'*  Meanwhile  I  am  getting  ready  my  materials,  and  arranging  my  ideas  for 
commencing  the  next  No.  which  I  shall  do  to-morrow  or  on  Monday.  The 
Bubject  of  Morphological  Development  grows  upon  me  so  much  as  I  examine 
into  it,  that  I  feel  somewhat  perplexed  how  to  say  all  that  I  have  got  to  say 
within  the  available  space." 

I  am  reminded  by  this  passage  of  the  way  in  which 

with  me,  and  I  suppose  with  many  others,  plans  that  have 

been  once  formed  exercise  an  almost  irresistible  coercion. 

Habitually,  before  I  have  yet  finished  rejoicing   over  my 

emancipation   from  a  work   which   has   long  played   the 

tyrant  over  me,  I  make  myself  the  slave  of  another.     The 

truth   is,    I   suppose,   that  in   the   absence    of    wife    and 

children  to  care  for,  the  carrying  out  of  my  undertakings 

is   the   one   thing    which   makes    life  worth  living — even 

though,  by  it,  life  is  continually  perturbed.     I  have  often 

said  jestingly,  that  if  I  could  but  get  over  the  bad  habit 

of  writing  books,  I  might  maintain  good  health.     It  seems 

that  I  declined  to  have  good  health  on  such  terms. 

Not,  indeed,  that  at  the  time  of  which  I  now  speak  I  had 

8 


lU  ANOTHER  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.       [1864 

more  than  usual  reason  to  complain.  After  having  been 
a  week  at  my  new  habitat  there  went  a  report  home 
speaking  of  its  favourable  effects ;  and  a  letter  written  on 
the  7th  November  says — 

"  I  am  in  very  tolerable  condition  now  that  the  weather  has  become  fine 
again.  I  felt  this  time,  as  I  always  do,  a  marked  difference  between  my 
state  during  a  low  atmospheric  pressure  and  my  state  during  a  high 
atmospheric  pressure. 

This  passage  I  quote  mainly  to  show  my  sensitiveness 
to  atmospheric  changes,  which  has  been  a  constant 
trait  with  me  ever  since.  During  subsequent  months 
further  improvement  in  health  seems  to  have  resulted  from 
my  migration  to  the  suburbs ;  as  witness  the  following 
paragraph  from  a  letter  dated  7  April  1865  : — 
"  I  am  tolerably  well ;  having  returned  on  Monday  from  the  Lubbocks  with 
whom  I  had  been  spending  five  days.  Last  night  our  Blastodermic  Club 
entertained  Colenso  at  dinner.  To-night  I  dine  with  Huxley,  and  to-morrow 
with  the  Huths.  On  the  whole  I  think  I  am  improving  in  my  power  of 
bearing  work  and  excitements." 

Reverting  to  the  account  of  my  work,  a  paragraph  in  a 
letter  dated  November  23,  1864,  indicates  a  new  phase 
upon  which  it  was  now  entering : — 

"  I  question  whether  it  will  be  practicable  for  me  to  come  down  before 
Christmas.  I  have  to  get  a  number  of  wood-engravings  done  for  my  next 
number,  and  this  involves  continual  interviews  and  arrangements  with  the 
engraver ;  which,  together  mth  getting  up  all  the  facts  &c.  occupies  me  very 
fully  just  now,  and  makes  it  difficult  for  me  to  get  away.  In  fact  to  do  so  I 
must  suspend  my  work." 

Since  the  days  when  I  was  in  the  habit  of  making 
portraits  of  friends,  more  than  twenty  years  previously,  I 
had  never  taken  up  my  pencil.  But  now  such  small  skill 
as  I  have  in  delineating  objects,  became  again  serviceable. 
The  greater  part  of  the  illustrations  I  required  were  of  a 
kind  which  it  was  needful  to  make  directly  from  Nature ; 
and  the  ability  to  make  them  myself,  instead  of  employing 
an  artist,  saved  me  not  only  money  but  the  trouble  which 
would  have  been  required  to  explain  all  that  I  wanted. 

These    brief  extracts   and  comments    may   be  taken  as 


.Et.  44.]    ANOTHER  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.  115 

suflficiently  indicating  tlie  course  of  mj   life    during   the 
winter  of  1864  and  the  London  season  of  1865. 


Of  more  interest  to  the  reader  than  these  details,  is  an 
event  referred  to  in  the  first  of  the  above-quoted  letters, 
dated  November  7,  1864.  It  concerns  the  earliest  meeting 
of  a  body  much  more  important  by  its  quality  than  by 
its  size. 

"  In  pursuance  of  a  long-suspended  intention,  a  few  of  the  most  advanced 
men  of  science  have  united  to  form  a  small  club  to  dine  together  occasion- 
ally. It  consists  of  Huxley,  Tyndall,  Hooker,  Lubbock,  Frankland,  Busk, 
Hirst,  and  myself.  Two  more  will  possibly  be  admitted.  But  the  number 
will  be  limited  to  ten.  Our  first  dinner  was  on  last  Thursday  ;  and  the  first 
Thursday  of  every  month  will  be  the  day  for  subsequent  meetings." 

The  increase  of  the  number  to  ten  never  took  place. 
One  addition  was  shortly  afterwards  made — Mr.  W. 
Spottiswoode ;  but  no  decision  was  come  to  respecting  the 
tenth.  From  time  to  time  for  some  years  the  question  was 
raised  and  discussed;  but  no  one  was  found  who  fulfilled 
the  two  requirements — that  he  should  be  of  adequate  mental 
calibre  and  that  he  should  be  on  terms  of  intimacy  with 
the  existing-  members.  For  the  Club  was  intended  to  be, 
first  of  all,  an  assemblage  of  friends  desirous  of  meeting 
one  another  more  frequently  than  their  daily  avocations 
and  many  engagements  allowed  them  to  do  in  the  absence 
of  pre-arrangement.  Eventually,  the  subject  of  a  tenth 
member  was  tacitly  dropped. 

Some  time  elapsed  before  we  named  ourselves.  *^The 
Thorough  Club  "  was  one  title  suggested ;  but  the  historical 
associations  negatived  it.  In  a  letter  to  my  father  quoted 
above,  I  have  used  the  name  '^  Blastodermic  ^^ — a  figure 
of  speech  alluding  to  the  truth  that  the  blastoderm  is 
that  part  of  an  ovum  in  which  the  rudiments  of  future 
organization  first  appear.  Who  proposed  this  I  do  not 
remember,  but  it  was  not  adopted.  So  long  did  our 
anonymous  character  continue,  that  at  length  it  was 
remarked  (I  believe  by  the  wife  of  one  of  the  members, 

8* 


116  ANOTHER  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.       [1864. 

Mrs.  Busk)  that  we  might  as  well  name  ourselves  after  the 
unknown  quantity.  The  suggestion  was  approved,  and 
we  became  the  X  Club.  Beyond  the  advantage  that  it 
committed  us  to  nothing,  this  name  had  the  further 
advantage  that  it  made  possible  a  brief,  and,  to  a  stranger, 
an  enigmatical,  notice  of  our  meetings.  A  few  days  before 
the  first  Thursday  in  the  month,  the  secretary  for  the 
time  being  sent  to  each  member  a  post-card  on  which  was 
written  a;  =  5 ;  or  whatever  other  day  of  the  month  the 
first  Thursday  fell  upon.  Doubtless  many  speculations 
and  many  absurd  conclusions  were  caused  in  the  minds  of 
servants  who  took  in  these  post-cards. 

The  Club  had  no  rules,  save  the  interdict  upon  non- 
attendance  for  any  other  reason  than  illness  or  absence 
from  town.  Nor  had  it  any  avowed  purpose  beyond  the 
periodic  assembling  of  friends.  True,  we  had  originally 
intended  to  discuss  scientific  and  philosophical  questions ; 
and  one  of  our  members  continued,  for  some  time,  to 
press  us  to  carry  out  our  intention.  But  though  scientific 
questions  often  cropped  up,  and  led  to  conversations, 
they  were  never  formally  introduced.  Time  was  spent 
chiefly  in  lively  talk,  of  which  badinage  formed  a  con- 
siderable element. 

There  did,  however,  grow  up  something  like  a  function. 
It  became  the  custom  to  discuss,  after  dinner,  the  affairs 
of  the  scientific  societies  :  sometimes  those  of  the  British 
Association,  but  more  frequently  those  of  the  Royal  Society. 
These  consultations  had  their  effects,  though  in  what  exact 
way  I  do  not  know.  In  course  of  time  the  existence  of 
the  Club  became  known  in  the  scientific  world,  and  it  was, 
we  heard,  spoken  of  with  bated  breath — was  indeed,  I 
believe,  supposed  to  exercise  more  power  than  it  did. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  its  influence  was  felt.  Among 
its  members  were  three  who  became  Presidents  of  the  Royal 
Society,  and  five  who  became  Presidents  of  the  British 
Association.     Of  the  others  one  was  for  a  time  President 


JEt.U.]    ANOTHEE  volume  of  5/(9Z06^F.  117 

of  the  College  of  Surgeons;  anotlier  President  of  the 
Chemical  Society;  and  a  third  of  the  Mathematical 
Society.  To  enumerate  all  their  titles,  and  honours,  and 
the  oflfices  they  filled,  would  occupy  too  much  space.  Of 
the  nine,  I  was  the  only  one  who  was  fellow  of  no  society, 
and  had  presided  over  nothing. 

As  is  implied  by  an  instance  referred  to  above,  we 
occasionally  invited  men  of  mark,  home  or  foreign,  as 
guests.  Of  the  one  class  I  may  name,  Prof.  Clifford, 
Prof.  Masson,  and  Mr.  Robert  Lowe  (afterwards  Lord 
Sherbrooke);  and  of  the  other  class  M.  Auguste  Laugel, 
Prof.  Helmholtz,  and  Professor  Asa  Gray.  In  the  course 
of  many  years  there  were  various  others  whose  names  I  do 
not  recall. 

Our  monthly  meetings  extended  from  October  to  June, 
and  towards  the  close  of  June  we  had,  for  many  years,  a 
supplementary  meeting  which  was  something  more  than  a 
dinner.  On  each  of  these  occasions  the  married  members 
brought  their  wives ;  and  thus  sometimes  raised  the 
number  of  the  party  to  fifteen.  We  left  town  early  on  the 
Saturday  afternoon  for  some  promising  place,  and  boated 
or  rambled  before  our  dinner;  drove  on  Sunday  to  a 
pleasant  spot  where  we  picnio'd;  dined  together  again  on 
the  Sunday  evening;  and  then  some  returned  to  town 
while  others  remained  over  Sunday  night.  On  the  first 
occasion  we  took  up  our  quarters  at  Skindle's  Hotel,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Thames  at  Taplow,  and  had  our  picnic- 
luncheon  on  the  Sunday  under  Burnham  Beeches;  and 
once,  if  not  twice,  afterwards,  we  went  to  the  same  place. 
Another  year  saw  us  at  "Windsor ;  on  which  occasion  we 
picnic'd  in  a  distant  part  of  the  forest.  And  when  the 
Oatlands  Park  Hotel  was  utilized,  St.  George's  Hill  was 
the  place  for  our  Sunday^s  luncheon.  Though  most  of  us  at 
that  time  were  not  young,  we  were  in  tolerable  vigour ;  and 
these  meetings,  enlivened  by  the  presence  of  ladies,  were 
very  enjoyable.      Sometimes  at  our  picnics  a  volume  of 


118  ANOTHER  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.       [1864. 

poems  was  produced.  Either  in  Windsor  Forest  or  at 
St.  George's  Hill,  Huxley,  I  remember,  read  aloud  to  us 
Tennyson's  ''CEnone."  After  some  ten  years,  several  motives 
caused  the  cessation  of  these  meetings  in  the  country. 

The  Club  has  now  (September  1887)  nearly  completed 
its  twenty-third  year.  Time  has  of  late  been  diminishing 
our  number.  Spottiswoode  was  the  first  to  leave  us — dying 
prematurely  :  I  think,  before  he  was  sixty.  Last  year  we 
lost  Busk,  but  at  a  good  age, — seventy-six  I  believe.  Of 
the  remaining  seven  there  are  but  three  in  good  health. 
But  our  ranks  have  never  been  thinned  by  desertions  or 
by  differences.  During  these  twenty-three  years  nothing 
has  occurred  to  disturb  the  harmony  of  our  meetings. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  to  Youmans 
dated  17  December  1864.  The  last  paragraph  is  the 
one  of  chief  interest;  but,  while  I  am  quoting,  I  may  as 
well  quote  some  preceding  ones,  which  are  not  without 
their  significance. 

"Again  let  me  express  my  obligations  for  your  unwearied  exertions  on 
behalf,  both  of  my  books  and  my  pecuniary  interests.  .  .  . 
"  There  are  two  things  that  strike  me  respecting  the  accounts.  .  .  . 
One  is  that  there  seems  to  have  been  forgotten  my  protest  against  being 
credited  with  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  re-printed  Essays,  at  this  early 
period  of  the  transaction.  Let  me  remind  you  that  I  declined  receiving  the 
profits  of  the  reprints,  until  after  those  gentlemen  who  had  guaranteed  the 
cost  of  the  stereotype  plates  had  been  reimbursed.  .  .  .  The  amount  of  242 
dollars  81  cents,  credited  to  me  should  be  credited  to  them.  .  .  . 
"  The  prospects  of  The  Reader  about  which  I  told  you,  are  highly  encourag- 
ing. Huxley,  Tyndall,  Cairns,  Galton  and  Pollock  are  the  editors.  And 
among  other  proprietors  of  weight,  in  addition  to  those  I  before  named,  are 
Darwin  and  Lubbock  and  Mill,  whose  consent  to  become  a  proprietor  I 
obtained  a  few  days  ago." 

The  Reader,  here  referred  to,  was  a  weekly  paper  (of  The 
Spectator  form)  predominantly  literary,  and  in  a  smaller 
degree  scientific,  which  had  been  founded  a  year  or  two 
before  by  Mr.  T.  Hughes,  q.c,  Mr.  Ludlow,  and  others  who, 
dissatisfied  with  existing  papers  of  the  class,  were  desirous 
of    having   one    which    should    be    candid    and   impartial 


^T.  44.]    ANOTHER  VOLVim  OF  BIOLOGY.  119 

in  its  criticisms,  and  liberal  in  its  views  of  affairs — not 
political  affairs  so  much  as  social  affairs.  As  habitually 
happens  with  new  journals,  it  inflicted  considerable  loss 
upon  its  founders ;  and,  weary  of  what  I  suppose  at 
length  seemed  to  them  no  longer  a  hopeful  undertaking, 
they  were  anxious  to  get  out  of  it — if  possible  by  sale. 
Mr.  J.  N.  Lockyer,  who  edited  the  scientific  department, 
giving  reports  of  societies  &c.,  was  anxious  that  the  paper 
should  not  drop,  and  was  energetic  in  getting  together  a 
new  proprietary.  Among  others  he  came  to  me,  and, 
entering  into  his  scheme  sympathetically,  I  canvassed 
sundry  of  my  friends  with  success.  I  took  a  share  myself 
and  induced  Tyndall  to  take  one.  At  my  instigation  Mr. 
Octavius  Smith  took  several,  I  forget  how  many;  Mr.  Huth 
took  five;  a  friend  at  Hendon,  Mr.  James  Campbell, took 
two ;  and  I  succeeded  in  inducing  Mr.  Mill  also  to  become  a 
proprietor.  The  following  letter  to  him  contains  some 
details  concerning  our  plan. 

"  The  annexed  circular  briefly  indicates  an  undertaking  into  which  a  num- 
ber of  those  who  have  at  heart  the  advance  of  liberal  opinion  are  entering 
with  much  zeal.  It  is  felt  that  if  this  opportunity  of  establishing  on  a  safe 
footing  an  organ  of  scientific  thought  and  of  conscientious  literary  criticism 
is  lost,  it  may  be  long  before  this  very  desirable  object  can  be  achieved. 
"The  editorial  organization  is  highly  satisfactory.  Professor  Huxley  will 
edit  the  department  of  Science  aided  by  Prof.  Tyndall.  Mr.  Francis  Galton 
takes  the  department  of  Travels  and  Ethnology.  Professor  Cairns  that  of 
Political  Economy  and  Political  Philosophy.  And  Mr.  Frederick  Pollock 
[now  Sir  Frederick]  that  of  Belles  Lettres. 

"The  paper  is  not  yet  quite  paying  its  expenses;  but  it  is  scarcely  to  be 
doubted  that  with  the  concentration  of  faculty  now  about  to  be  engaged  upon 
it,  it  will  soon  do  so  ;  and  may  not  improbably  become  a  good  investment. 
The  paper  has  been  purchased  for  £2250,  and  it  has  been  resolved  to  issue 
40  shares  of  £100  :  calling  up  £80  on  each ;  so  as  to  leave  about  £1000 
working  capital.     Thirty-four  are  already  taken  up. 

"  It  is  proposed  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  to  commence  a  new  series  of 
the  paper  ;  and  it  is  suggested  that  at  that  time,  along  with  the  prospectus 
of  the  paper  as  re-organized  and  re-officered,  there  should  be  published  the 
names  of  the  proprietors,  as  an  indication  of  the  course  which  the  paper  is 
likely  to  take.     Your  name  would  add  greatly  to  our  prestige." 

I  regretted  afterwards  that  I  took  so  active  a  part  in  the 
business ;   for  it  ended  in  disappointment  and  loss.     Just 


120  ANOTHER  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.       [1865. 

as  the  new  staff  was  starting,  when  there  was  no 
longer  time  for  consideration,  it  was  found  needful  to 
appoint  a  general  editor.  Partly  because  he  was  an 
amateur,  and  partly  because  he  was  not  fully  in  sympathy 
with  us,  the  general  editor  did  not  conduct  matters  as 
intended;  and  our  own  aims,  as  well  as  the  expectations  of 
our  subscribers,  were  balked.  After  a  period  of  decline  a 
professional  editor  was  appointed  and  things  improved 
somewhat ;  but  it  was  too  late.  Eventually  we  made  over 
the  paper  to  a  Mr.  Bendyshe,  I  think,  in  whose  hands 
it  died. 

It  seems  that  we  were  not  daunted,  however,  as  witness 
the  following  extract  from  a  letter  to  Youmans  written  on 
January  14,  1867  : — 

"  An  attempt  is  being  made  here  to  establish  a  scientific  journal,  to  do 
what  The  Header  was  intended  to  do.  My  friend  Mr.  Campbell  came  to  me 
the  other  day,  proposing  to  give  £1000  towards  the  capital,  if  such  a  thing 
were  attempted.  I  mentioned  it  at  the  X,  and  the  notion  was  well  received. 
I  propose  that  we  shall  take  a  year  or  so  to  organize  matters,  before  making 
a  start ;  and  get  our  scientific  friends  throughout  the  kingdom  to  canvass 
their  localities,  so  as  to  get  a  constituency  to  start  with." 

I  had  utterly  forgotten  this  scheme,  and,  by  implication, 
do  not  remember  what  resulted.  Possibly  the  movement 
was  that  which  ended  in  the  establishment  of  Nature. 

Concerning  The  Reader  I  have  omitted  to  say  that,  though  I 
took  no  part  in  the  management,  I  gave  a  little  aid  in  the 
way  of  contributions.  While  it  was  in  our  hands  I  wrote 
for  it  four  articles — two  political  and  two  scientific. 

Save  the  articles  just  named,  which  were  of  course  short, 
no  writings  for  periodicals  had  been  undertaken  by  me  since 
1860.  A  desire  to  make  as  rapid  progress  as  my  health 
would  permit  with  my  life-work,  led  me  to  negative  all 
solicitations.  But  now,  besides  the  above-named  exceptions, 
there  came  a  more  important  exception. 

The  Fortnightly  Review  had  recently  been  established. 
Lewes,  who  was  its  first  editor,  had  for  some  time  wished 
me    to    write    for   it.      I   demurred   for   the   reason    just 


^T.  45.]    ANOTHER  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.  121 

assigned;  and  probably  should  have  continued  to  demur, 
had  it  not  been  for  a  cause  described  thus  in  a  letter  home 
dated  15  May,  1865  :— 

"  Lewes  has  induced  me  to  reply  to  Mill's  misrepresentation  of  me  in  his 
book  on  Hamilton.  My  reply  will  appear  in  the  Fortnightly  Review  some 
two  months  hence." 

Not  long  afterwards,  having  occasion  to  write  to  Mill  on 
some  other  matter,  I  named  the  fact  that  I  was  about  to 
answer  him.     He  made  this  response  : — 

"  Nothing  can  be  more  agreeable  to  me  than  to  hear  that  you  are  going  to 
answer  me  in  the  Fortnightly  Review,  I  hope  you  will  not  spare  me.  If  you 
make  out  so  strong  a  case  (and  no  one  is  more  hkely  to  do  so  if  it  can  be 
done)  as  to  make  it  absolutely  necessary  for  me  to  defend  myself,  I  shall 
perhaps  do  so  through  the  same  Review ;  but  not  without  a  positive 
necessity.  I  have  had  enough  for  the  present,  of  writing  against  a  friend 
and  ally." 

The  following  paragraph  from  a  letter  to  my  father, 
written  on  July  10,  says,  in  connexion  with  the  matter : — 
"  I  dined  with  Mill  yesterday,  along  with  Bain  and  some  others,  and  spent 
a  very  pleasant  evening.  As  I  remarked  to  him,  it  is  rather  curious  that  the 
day  on  which  I  first  paid  a  visit  to  him  should  be  the  day  on  which  I  had 
just  revised  the  proof  of  my  article  against  him." 

I  may  here  add  that  on  sundry  later  occasions  during 
Mr.  Mill's  residence  at  Blackheath,  and  subsequently  when 
he  took  a  flat  in  Victoria  Street,  Westminster,  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  dining  with  him.  Among  those  whom  I  met 
there  at  intervals  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Grote,  Professor 
Cliffe  Leslie,  Lord  and  Lady  Amberley,  and,  several  times, 
Prof.  Bain  and  his  wife.  These  gatherings  had  not  been 
long  commenced  or  recommenced.  Previously,  I  had  seen 
Mr.  Mill  only  at  the  India  House ;  for  after  their  marriage 
he  and  Mrs.  Mill  led  a  recluse  life.  It  was,  I  believe,  some 
years  after  her  death  before  he  began  to  receive  friends. 
In  manner  he  was  quiet  and  unassuming.  His  face  gave 
constant  evidence  of  the  extent  to  which  in  later  life,  as  in  his 
earlier  life,  his  nervous  system  had  been  overtaxed ;  for  he 
had  frequent  twitchings  of  some  facial  muscles.  Another 
trait   of    expression   I    can    recall :    there    was    a   certain 


122  ANOTHER  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.       [1865. 

habitual  setting  of  the  lips,  implying,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  a 
conscious  self-restraint.  Too  stern  a  discipline  in  his  boy- 
hood, and  perhaps  too  serious  a  view  of  things  in  his  later 
years,  put,  I  think,  an  undue  check  on  the  display  of 
pleasurable  feelings.  I  do  not  remember  his  laugh ;  and 
my  impression  is  that  though  he  appreciated  good  things 
he  did  not  laugh  heartily.  In  fact  his  mental  attitude  as 
expressed  in  manner  and  conversation,  was  much  the  same 
as  that  shown  by  his  address  as  Lord  Rector  at  St.  Andrews, 
which  seemed  to  imply  that  life  is  for  learning  and  working. 
Though,  being  a  Utilitarian,  knowledge  and  action  must 
have  been  regarded  by  him  as  subordinate  to  the  gaining  of 
happiness,  immediate  or  remote ;  yet,  practically,  this 
ultimate  purpose  seemed  to  be  ignored.  But  though  in  him 
the  means  to  happiness  had  come  to  occupy  the  foreground 
of  consciousness  almost  to  the  extent  of  thrusting  out  the 
end,  just  as  it  does  in  the  man  of  business  who  thinks  only 
of  making  money,  and  almost  forgets  the  uses  of  the  money; 
yet  he  differed  widely  in  the  respect  that  this  absorption 
in  learning  and  working  was  not  for  self-benefit,  but  for 
the  benefit  of  mankind. 

Reverting  to  the  matter  from  which  this  sketch  of  Mill 
has  led  me  to  digress,  I  have  to  add  that  the  article  in 
question  was  published  on  the  15th  of  July.  Thereupon 
he  sent  me  the  copy  of  a  note  which  he  proposed  to  add  to 
a  new  edition  of  his  work  on  Hamilton,  then  in  the  press, 
correcting  the  mis-statement  of  my  view,  on  which  his 
argument  against  me  in  his  Logic  was  based.  As  this  note 
did  not  rightly  recognize  the  nature  of  the  mis-statement, 
I  wrote  to  him  pointing  out  more  clearly  what  this  was. 
There  presently  came  a  reply  acknowledging  the  error.  I 
quote  a  sentence  for  the  purpose  of  exhibiting  his  candour. 
"It  is  evident  that  I  have  again  a  misapprehension  of  your  opinion  tc 
confess  and  correct,  since  you  do  not  acknowledge  it  as  yours  in  the  mode 
in  which  it  is  stated  by  me." 
Though  it  is  three  months  later  in  date,  I  may  fitly  add 


zEt.  45.]    ANOTHEK  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.  123 

here  a  relevant  passage  from  a  letter  to  my  father  written 
on  October  3  ; — 

••  John  Mill  has  just  sent  me  the  sixth  edition  of  his  Logic,  containing, 
among  other  changes,  considerable  modification  in  the  chapter  which  he 
devotes  to  the  question  at  issue  between  us.  He  seeks  to  meet  some  of  the 
arguments  of  my  article  in  the  Fortnightly,  ...  I  am  quite  satisfied  with  the 
present  aspect  of  the  controversy." 

And  thus  ended  a  discussion  which  had  been  commenced 
by  my  essay  on  '^  The  Universal  Postulate,"  published  in 
The  Westminster  Review  in  1853. 

Soon  after  the  article  was  issued,  I  became  aware  that 
there  existed  good  reason  for  writing  it.  I  am  reminded 
of  this  discovery  by  the  following  extract  which  I  find  in  a 
letter  home  dated  15  May  : — 

"  I  gave  a  dinner  to  Youmans  last  Friday,  and  asked,  to  meet  him,  Huxley, 
Tyndall,  Hooker,  Bain,  Lewes  and  Masson.  It  went  off  very  well." 
Why  this  extract  serves  as  a  reminder  is  not  very 
manifest.  But  it  recalls  to  me  the  satisfaction  which  Prof. 
Youmans  expressed  that  I  had  made  this  rejoinder  to 
Mill's  reply ;  and  his  satisfaction  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  rejoinder  would  dissipate  a  misapprehension  current  in 
America.  That  I  had  said  nothing,  was  there  understood 
to  imply  that  I  had  nothing  to  say.  Probably  here,  too, 
my  silence  was  construed  in  this  way. 

One  of  the  punishments  of  authorship,  or,  at  any  rate, 
authorship  of  certain  kinds,  is  the  almost  inevitable 
subjection  to  alternative  evils — those  inflicted  by  declining 
controversy,  and  those  inflicted  by  engaging  in  it.  That 
which  one  constantly  sees  in  oral  disputes  (that  he  who 
has  the  last  word  leaves  on  auditors  the  impression  of 
having  had  the  best  of  the  argument)  holds,  too,  of  disputes 
carried  on  in  print — holds  even  where  the  last  word  is  also 
the  first  word;  that  is,  where  no  notice  is  taken.  The 
tendency  to  interpret  absence  of  reply  into  inability  to 
reply,  is  very  general  aud  almost  irresistible.     Even  I  have 


124  ANOTHEK  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.       [1865. 

found  myself  on  more  than  one  occasion  supposing  that 
when  no  answer  came  no  sufficient  answer  could  be  given; 
though  I  well  know  that  there  are  commonly  other  causes. 
One  is  pre-occupation.  Another  is  the  belief  that  time 
spent  in  controversy  is  usually  wasted.  Opponents  as 
candid  and  conscientious  as  Mill,  in  whom  the  love  of  truth 
predominates  over  the  love  of  victory,  are  rarely  met  with. 
Hence  the  probabilities  always  are  that  in  defence  of  the 
original  misrepresentations  (and  most  controversies  arise 
out  of  misrepresentations),  fresh  misrepresentations  will  be 
made,  and  new  issues  raised,  time  after  time;  until  the 
original  question  is  lost  sight  of  and  the  thing  ends  in 
unsettled  side-issues. 

And  yet,  strong  as  are  the  reasons  for  avoiding  contro- 
versy, the  reasons  for  entering  into  it  are  sometimes  even 
stronger ;  for  an  unanswered  objection  or  unrectified  mis- 
statement is  often  extremely  mischievous.  For  example, 
I  am  well  aware  that  criticisms  made  upon  the  theory 
concerning  our  space-consciousness  set  forth  in  the 
Principles  of  Psychology,  which  might  be  effectually 
disposed  of,  have  for  years  had  a  damaging  effect  on  the 
estimate  of  the  book. 

My  summer  and  autumn  movements  this  year  will  be 
sufficiently  indicated  by  the  following  extracts  from  letters 
to  my  father,  of  which  the  first,  dated  July  4,  gives  a  key  to 
the  rest. 

"  I  met  Mr.  Smith  last  night  at  an  election  meeting  of  J.  S.  Mill's 
Bupporters.  [Mill  was  just  then  a  candidate  for  Westminster,  which  he 
afterwards  represented  in  Parliament] .  He  asked  me  to  go  to  Scotland. 
They  are  to  leave  in  about  a  fortnight,  and  I  am  to  join  them  early.  I  shall 
therefore  probably  come  down  to  Derby  about  the  close  of  next  week,  and 
spend  a  week  or  so  with  you  before  going  North." 

The  next  was  written  on  the  10th. 
"  I  had  given  notice  to  Mrs.  Sharpe  to  leave  at  the  end  of  this  week.     But 
if  you  will  come  up  here,  I  will  stay  for  a  few  days  longer,  so  that  you  may 
have  a  week  in  town.    The  Youmanses  will  probably  leave  for  Switzerland 


^T.  45.]    AXOTHER  VOLUME  OF  ^/OiOG^r.  125 

in  a  week  or  ten  days.    You  could,  after  being  a  week  here,  go  on  to  Brighton 
or  elsewhere,  if  you  felt  bo  disposed." 

He  came,  and  I,  after  a  time,  went  to  Derby.  In  a  letter 
to  him  written  thence,  giving  an  account  of  my  mother's 
health,  I  find  the  passage  : — 

"  I  voted  for  Evans  and  Colville  on  Saturday.  You  have  probably  seen 
before  now  that  they  were  returned  by  small  majorities." 
This  was  the  only  vote  for  a  Member  of  Parliament  I 
ever  gave.  Certain  property  which  had  come  to  me  from 
my  uncle  William,  gave  me  a  qualification ;  and  when 
I  shortly  afterwards  sold  this  property,  I  was  disqualified. 
Though  since  that  time  I  have  had  a  qualification  in 
London,  and  might  have  registered,  I  have  never  done  so. 
Not  that  the  election  of  Liberal  or  Conservative  has  been 
a  matter  of  indifference  to  me ;  for,  speaking  generally, 
my  sympathies  have  been  with  the  Liberal  candidate. 
But  in  most  cases  my  dissent  from  the  beliefs  tacitly 
held  by  both  political  parties  on  the  question  of  the 
functions  of  the  State,  which  I  regard  as  the  question  of 
most  importance,  has  been  such  that  I  have  had  little  motive 
to  support  one  candidate  rather  than  another.  In  fact  as, 
of  late  years.  Liberals  have  vied  with  Conservatives  in 
extending  legislative  regulations  in  all  directions,  there  has 
been  nothing  to  choose  between  them,  and  therefore,  to 
me,  no  temptation  to  vote. 

Returning  from  this  parenthetic  explanation,  I  may  quote 
next  from  a  letter  dated  6  August. 

"I  arrived  at  Ardtornish  last  night  and  was  cordially  received.  The 
Earps  and  I  [Mr.  Earp  was  my  friend  Lott's  senior  partner]  arrived  at 
Oban  on  the  Wednesday  evening  as  intended,  and  spent  Thursday  and  Friday 
very  pleasantly,  partly  in  showing  them  the  neighbourhood  and  partly  in  sea- 
fishing.  The  weather  was  very  fine,  while  with  you  we  hear  it  was  raining. 
On  Saturday  they  started  with  me  by  the  steamer  that  goes  to  Staffa,  which 
was  to  drop  me  at  Ardtornish  in  going,  but  in  consequence  of  the  tides  it 
went  round  Mull  the  other  way  and  I  had  to  go  to  Staffa  with  them.  As  I 
had  never  before  seen  it,  I  was  not  sorry — it  is  worth  seeing." 

Written  on  the  31st,  saying  that  I  was  about  to  leave 
Ardtornish  next  day,  a  letter  also  said  that  I  thought 
of  going  South  by  the  East  coast,  which  I  had  never  seen. 


126  ANOTHEE  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOaY.       [1866. 

This  intention  was  fulfilled ;  as  witness  the  following  lines 
sent  from  Durham  on  the  4th  September  : — 

"  I  stopped  on  my  way  at  Dunbar,  Berwick,  Newcastle,  Tynemouth.  From 
this  picturesque  old  place  I  think  of  going  to-morrow  to  Barnard  Castle  and 
thence  to  Eichmond.     I  shall  probably  be  home  on  Thursday  or  Friday." 

After  spending  a  little  time  at  Derby,  I  reached  town  on 
the  18th  of  September,  and  was  settled  in  Kensington 
Gardens  Square  on  the  22nd. 

The  first  quotable  passage  from  home  correspondence 
after  that  date,  is  one  written  on  October  3,  as  follows  : — 

•'  Inclosed  I  send  you  a  letter  from  Ernest  Kenan,  the  French  Professor 
who  has  recently  obtained  so  much  celebrity  by  his  Vie  de  Jesus.  If  you  can 
make  it  all  out,  you  will  see  that  it  is  very  satisfactory — especially  the 
intimation  that  First  Principles  is  likely  to  be  translated  into  French." 

This  was  the  first  intimation  of  the  kind  which  came  to 
me  from  abroad ;  but  the  French  did  not  after  all  take  the 
initiative.  This  was  taken  by  the  Russians.  In  the  follow- 
ing March  I  received  from  St.  Petersburg  information  that 
translations  were  in  progress,  or  had  been  published,  I  forget 
which ;  and  several  Russian  translations  had  made  their 
appearance  during  the  five  years  which  elapsed  before  there 
appeared  the  first  French  translation. 

Nothing  further  worthy  of  record  is  mentioned  in  corre- 
spondence until  December  18,  when,  in  a  letter  home,  there 
occurs  a  passage  describing  something  new  in  the  course  of 
my  work : — 

' '  I  have  been  very  busy  lately  with  the  microscope  studying  the  circulating 
system  in  plants,  and  have  arrived  at  some  interesting  results.  I  shall 
probably  devote  myself  to  it  a  good  deal  while  I  am  at  Derby." 

This  I  did.  I  obtained  from  the  hothouses  and  green- 
houses at  Kew,  a  large  number  of  cuttings,  chiefly  of 
aberrant  types  of  plants,  and  passed  much  of  my  time  at 
home  in  experimenting  upon  them.  After  my  return  to 
town  the  investigations  continued.  A  letter  of  January  30, 
1866,  says  : — 

"  I  am  still  busy  with  my  microscope:  usually  working  with  it  at  the  same 
time  that  1  am  dictating ;  but,  as  a  tl-suU  which  you  may  imagine,  dictating 
slowly,  and  not  very  well.     As  I  write  this,  I  have  under  the  microscope 


iEr.  45.]    ANOTHEE  VOLUME  OF  ^/OZOG^F.  127 

a  very  beautiful  preparation,  serving  very  admirably  as  evidence  of  my 
hypothesis." 

To  Professor  Youmans  on  March  2,  I  described  a  further 
phase  of  the  matter  : — 

"I  should  have  written  to  you  again  before  this  time,  but  that  I  have 
been  of  late  so  very  busy  with  certain  investigations  in  Vegetal  Physiology, 
of  which  your  sister  [she  had  remained  in  England]  has  possibly  by  this  time 
told  you  something  ;  and  during  the  last  month  more  especially  I  have  been 
compelled  to  devote  myself  wholly  to  them,  in  consequence  of  having 
committed  myself  to  a  paper  for  the  Linna;an  Society  on  the  subject.  This 
I  read  last  night.  It  passed  off  very  satisfactorily.  I  shall  of  course  send 
you  a  copy  of  the  paper  when  it  is  printed  ;  but  as  there  mil  be  a  plate  of 
illustrations  it  will  probably  be  a  long  while  before  you  receive  it." 

The  inquiry  which  came  to  issue  in  this  manner,  had 
arisen  in  the  course  of  my  work.  When  treating  of 
physiological  development,  something  had  to  be  said 
about  circulation  in  plants.  Botanical  books  gave  no 
accounts  from  which  I  could  frame  an  intelligible  con- 
ception ;  and  I  found  it  needful  to  look  into  the  facts  for 
myself.  There  was  a  manifest  inadequacy  in  the  accepted 
statement  that  the  movement  of  liquid  is  through  the 
wood ;  for  there  arose  the  question, — What  course  does  it 
take  in  young  plants  which  are  still  succulent,  and  in  those 
parts  of  adult  plants  which  have  not  yet  formed  wood  ?  Is 
circulation  in  these  cases  carried  on  by  diffusion  from  cell  to 
cell,  or  is  it  carried  on  through  definite  canals  ?  If  in  young 
tissues  definite  canals  exist,  as  they  do,  it  would  be  strange 
did  the  moving  liquids  neglect  these  and  pass  through 
the  general  substance,  which  is  comparatively  difficult  to 
permeate.  But  I  did  not  argue  thus ;  though  a  certain 
friend  of  mine,  who  regards  me  as  prone  to  a  priori 
reasoning,  would  doubtless  suppose  that  I  did.  My  argu- 
ment was  wholly  inductive  and  unguided  by  hypothesis ; 
for,  until  observations  and  experiments  had  suggested  one, 
no  view  at  all  was  entertained  by  me.  The  result,  however, 
was  to  show  that  the  inference  Avhich  might  have  been 
drawn  a  priori  was  true.  In  young  plants  ;  in  the  leaves 
and  soft  shoots  of  old  ones ;  throughout  all  parts  of  adult 
plants  that  remain  succulent,  like  the  balsams ;  and  in  such 


128  ANOTHER  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.       [1866. 

aberrant  plants  as  cactuses^  which,  between  their  joints, 
are  long  before  they  develop  wood ;  the  vessels  are  the 
channels  which  the  sap  follows.  But  wherever  wood  is 
formed  or  forming,  it  becomes  the  channel  followed  by 
the  sap  :  the  adjacent  vessels,  deserted  by  liquid,  become 
filled  with  air — ^not,  as  was  supposed,  because  they  are 
air-carriers,  but  simply  as  dead  or  disused  organs. 

This  inquiry  developed  into  further  ones  respecting  the 
mechanics  of  the  circulation  and  the  forces  which  cause 
and  aid  it.  Incidentally  some  traits  of  structure,  too,  were 
observed.  Details  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix  to 
Principles  of  Biology,  Vol.  II.* 

Conforming  to  its  title,  this  chapter  ought,  I  suppose,  to 

include  an  account  of  all  that  occurred  while  the  second 

volume  of  the  Biology  was  being  written.     But,  besides 

entailing  undue  length,  entire  conformity  to  its  title  would 

*  One  and  twenty  years  have  elapsed  since  the  paper  above  described  was 
published.  To  my  surprise  I  have  nowhere  seen  mentioned  any  attempt  to 
either  verify  or  disprove  the  conclusions  it  contains.  Some  passing  references 
to  the  paper  have,  I  believe,  been  made  ;  but  the  text  books  continue  to  repeat 
substantially  the  same  story  as  before.  I  have  lately  referred  to  the  most 
recent  authoritative  work — the  translation  of  Sachs  On  the  Physiology  of 
Plants ;  and  in  it  I  find  it  still  stated  that  the  circulation  is  through  the  wood : 
the  statement  being  stretched  so  as  cover  the  facts  by  saying  that  it  is  always 
through  lignified  tissue,  and  including  under  that  name  vascular  bundles  as 
well  as  wood-cells — a  proceeding  which  seems  to  me  about  as  reasonable  as  it 
would  be  to  group  a  man's  ears  with  his  bones  because  both  have  a  basis  of 
cartilage.  Twice  during  the  interval  I  have  myself  verified  the  leading 
proposition  of  the  paper  in  a  simple  and  conclusive  way.  The  way  is  this  : — 
Choose  a  young  plant  some  three  or  four  inches  high,  in  a  greenhouse  where 
it  has  been  grown  in  soft,  prepared  soil.  Insert  a  trowel  at  such  distance 
from  it  as  not  to  touch  its  rootlets,  and  take  it  up  bodily  along  with  the  mass 
of  soil  imbedding  its  roots.  Immerse  the  mass  in  a  vessel  of  water ;  so 
that  the  loose  soil  may  faU  away  and  leave  the  roots  bare.  Fill  a  wide- 
mouthed  bottle  with  a  strong  decoction  of  logwood ;  insert  in  it  the  roots 
of  the  young  plant ;  and  there  leave  it,  for,  say,  twelve  hours.  Then  cut 
through  obliquely  the  stem  or  a  leaf  stalk,  and  apply  to  the  cut  surface  a  little 
chloride  of  tin  in  solution.  Immediately  the  characteristic  purple  will  be 
seen  in  the  vascular  bundles  ;  and  microscopic  examination  will  show  that 
the  coloured  liquid  is  confined  to  the  vessels. 


Mt.  46.]    ANOTHEK  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.  129 

make  it  include  sundry  events  momentous  enough  to  occupy 
places  by  themselves,  I  therefore  pass  over  a  period  inter- 
vening between  the  reading  of  the  paper  just  described, 
and  the  completion  of  the  book :  thinking  it  best  to  say 
here  what  little  has  to  be  said  about  the  book  as  even- 
tually published. 

Few  parts  of  my  work  gave  me  more  pleasure  in  the 
execution.  In  the  first  division,  "  Morphological  Develop- 
ment," certain  views  which  had  long  been  waiting  for  full 
expression  found  a  place.  There  came  the  opportunity  for, 
and  indeed  almost  the  necessity  for,  a  speculation  con- 
cerning the  modes  in  which  the  two  higher  types  of  plants, 
eudogens  and  exogens,  have  been  evolved  out  of  a  lower 
type  of  plant.  That  there  has  been  such  an  evolution  is 
an  inevitable  implication ;  and  a  probable  mode  in  which  it 
has  taken  place  had  to  be  shown.  Originally  standing 
quite  apart  from  this,  but  eventually  becoming  united  to  it, 
was  a  conclusion  towards  which  I  had  for  some  years  been 
gravitating  respecting  the  relations  between  the  foliar  and 
axial  parts  of  plants,  and  in  support  of  which  I  had 
collected  many  specimens :  the  conclusion  being  that  the 
two  are  not  primordially  distinct,  as  was  alleged,  but  that 
the  foliar  organ  is  the  primitive  unit,  and  the  axial  organ 
the  derivative.  Then,  too,  there  had  to  be  worked  out 
under  the  general  head  of  "Morphological  Differentiation" 
that  hypothesis  respecting  the  shapes  of  organisms  and 
their  parts,  which,  first  reached  in  1851,  was  sketched  out 
in  the  "  Law  of  Organic  Symmetry"  in  1858 ;  and  beyond 
the  developing  of  this  in  relation  to  the  external  shapes  of 
organisms  and  their  parts,  there  came  the  extension  of  it 
to  the  shapes  of  certain  internal  parts. 

Scarcely  less  interesting  to  me  was  the  subject  of 
"  Physiological  Development,"  forming  the  next  division. 
The  point  of  view  from  which  the  phenomena  were  contem- 
plated, was,  of  course,  the  same  as  that  from  which  the 
preceding  group  of   phenomena   was  contemplated.     How 

9 


130  ANOTHER  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.       [1866. 

are  physiological  differentiations  to  be  interpreted  in  terms 
of  the  re-distribution  of  matter  and  motion — as  consequent, 
that  is,  upon  the  relations  of  parts  to  incident  forces  ?  For 
clearly,  if  the  survival  of  the  fittest  among  organisms  as 
wholes,  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  process  of  equilibration 
between  actions  in  the  environment  and  actions  in  the 
organism;  so  must  the  local  modifications  of  their  parts, 
external  and  internal,  be  regarded  as  survivals  of  structures 
the  reactions  of  which  are  in  equilibrium  with  the  actions 
they  are  subject  to.  This  general  view  had  to  be  carried 
out  in  the  interpretation  of  such  contrasts  as  those  between 
outer  and  inner  tissues,  and  those  between  parts  of  outer 
tissues  exposed  to  one  set  of  forces  and  parts  exposed  to 
another.  And  then,  in  animals,  it  had  to  be  similarly 
carried  out  in  its  application  to  internal  organs  :  especially 
those  of  the  alimentary  canal  and  its  appendages. 
Throughout  all  the  interpretations  there  ran  the  general 
thesis  that,  while  the  majority  of  these  differentiations  are 
indirectly  caused  by  survival  of  the  fittest,  there  is  part  of 
them,  and  that,  too,  the  primordial  part,  due  to  the  direct 
action  of  incident  forces. 

Lastly,  under  the  head  of  ''Laws  of  Multiplication'* 
came  a  division  in  which  there  had  to  be  set  forth  in  detail 
the  idea  originally  sketched  out  some  fifteen  years  before, 
in  the  "  Theory  of  Population  deduced  from  the  General 
Law  of  Animal  Fertility."  Separated  from  crudities  and 
superfluities,  the  idea  withstood  a  wider  comparison  with 
the  facts;  and  while  apparently  applicable  to  the  organic 
world  as  a  whole,  seemed  also  in  harmony  with  the  evi- 
dence presented  by  races  of  men  differently  conditioned. 
Here,  on  recalling  the  matter,  I  am  struck  by  the  fact, 
which  I  have  never  before  observed,  that  long  before 
reaching  the  general  conception  of  Evolution  as  set  forth  in 
terms  of  the  re-distribution  of  matter  and  motion,  there  was 
a  manifest  tendency  to  contemplate  organic  phenomena 
from  this  same  physical  point  of  view.     For  the  various 


^T.  46.]    ANOTHEK  VOLUME  OF  BIOLOGY.  131 

conclusions  readied  were  so  many  corollaries  from  the 
doctrine  that  in  proportion  as  the  matter  and  motion 
expended  in  maintaining  individual  life  are  great  in  their 
amounts,  the  amounts  available  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
species  are  small,  and  vice  versa :  the  implication  being  that 
fertility  is  inversely  proportionate  to  the  size  and  hetero- 
geneity of  the  species  and  the  activity  and  complexity  of 
its  life. 

Am  I  going  to  say  something  about  the  reception  of  the 
volume  ?  No :  for  a  very  sufficient  reason — it  had  no 
reception.  In  other  words  it  was  not  sent  round  to  the 
press.  My  decision  not  to  send  it  was  made  after  receiving 
definite  proof  that  readers  had  been  deterred  from  looking 
at  my  books  by  the  totally  wrong  conceptions  of  them  they 
had  gained  from  reviews.  This  proof  was  given  by 
Professor  Bain.  He  told  me  that  during  a  conversation 
with  John  Mill,  in  which  the  Principles  of  Psychology  was 
referred  to,  he.  Bain,  confessed  that  he  had  not  read  it. 
Mill  expressed  great  surprise;  whereupon  Bain  explained 
that  the  impression  gained  from  notices  of  it  had  deterred 
him.  He  went  on  to  say  that  when,  subsequently,  he  read 
the  book,  he  found  to  his  astonishment  that  the  reviews 
had  not  given  him  the  remotest  conception  of  its  contents. 
Receiving  as  I  thus  did  a  verification  of  a  belief  towards 
which  I  was  tending,  I  directed  my  publishers  not  to 
issue  any  copies  of  the  second  volume  of  the  Biology  to 
the  critical  journals. 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

IMPENDING  CESSATION. 

1866.    Mt.  46. 

Op  the  various  occurrences  occupying  the  hiatus  indicated 
towards  the  close  of  the  last  chapter,  the  first  in  order 
of  time  was  a  crisis  in  my  career  which  happened  at  the 
beginning  of  1866. 

During  the  preceding  year,  my  attention  was  decisively 
drawn  to  the  fact  that  my  expenditure,  though  modest  in 
amount,  continually  outran  my  income,  and  forced  me  to 
draw  upon  capital  more  frequently  or  more  seriously.  A 
letter  recalls  the  fact  that  early  in  1863,  the  subscribers  to 
my  serial,  originally  430  in  number,  had  fallen  to  350 : 
the  ending  of  First  Principles  having,  I  presume,  been  an 
occasion  for  the  withdrawals  of  many,  and  perusal  of  the 
early  part  of  the  Biology,  uninteresting  to  the  majority, 
having  caused  further  withdrawals.  Moreover,  among  the 
remaining  names  not  a  few  had  to  be  crossed  out  after  futile 
efforts  made  by  the  publishers  to  obtain  payments  of  sub- 
scriptions in  arrear. 

The  difficulty  was  becoming  otherwise  complicated.  My 
father  was  now  75  ;  and  though  he  maintained  his  erect 
carriage  and  preserved  tolerable  health,  his  energies,  bodily 
and  mental,  were  of  course  flagging.  As  a  consequence, 
while  his  professional  engagements  fell  off,  those  which 
remained  occasionally  proved  too  much  for  him  :  so  much 
so,  indeed,  that  in  more  than  one  letter  I  advised  him 
to  retire  altogether,  rather  than  make   himself   ill.      My 


^T.  45.]  IMPENDING  CESSATION.  133 

mother,  too,  had  now  become  a  confirmed  invalid ;  and  illness 
is  always  expensive.  Thus  their  requirements  were  increas- 
ing at  the  same  time  that  the  means  of  meeting  them  were 
decreasing ;  and  in  the  absence  of  returns  from  teaching, 
my  father's  other  sources  of  income  were  obviously  in- 
sufficient. Of  course  the  result  was  that  I  had  to  aid  ;  and 
the  required  aid  was  certain  to  become  greater  year  by  year. 

During  his  then  recent  stay  in  England,  I  had  talked 
the  matter  over  with  my  friend  Prof.  Youmans — probably 
in  the  course  of  the  week  he  spent  with  me  in  Kensington 
Gardens  Square.  Such,  at  least,  is  the  implication  of  the 
following  passage  from  a  letter  written  to  him  on  October 
28,  1865. 

'*  Since  you  left  I  have  obtained  from  the  share-broker  at  Derby,  through 
whose  hands  most  of  my  money  transactions  have  gone,  the  data  I  needed ; 
and,  joining  them  with  my  bank  account  and  other  memoranda,  I  have  been 
able  to  make  a  tolerably  definite  calculation  of  my  losses.  I  found  that  my 
guess  was  not  far  from  the  mark.  It  turns  out  that  since  1850  I  have  sunk 
nearly  £1,100  in  writing  and  publishing  books  ;  and  the  amount  will  con- 
siderably exceed  £1,100  by  the  time  I  have  finished  the  volume  now 
in  progress.     .     .     . 

Not  finding  the  result  any  more  encouraging  than  I  supposed,  I  have 
not,  as  you  may  expect,  found  any  reason  to  modify  my  intention  of  issuing, 
along  with  No.  15,  the  notice  of  cessation  at  the  close  of  the  volume." 

This  intention  was  carried  out.  Before  the  notice  was 
issued,  much  anxious  thought  and  no  little  painful  feeling 
were  passed  through.  It  was  grievous  thus  to  give  up  my 
life-work  when  already  a  considerable  part  of  it  had  been 
satisfactorily  executed.  But  I  had  either  to  go  on  wasting 
away  what  little  I  possessed  and  neglecting  my  responsi- 
bilities, or  else  to  abandon  the  undertaking ;  and  I 
sorrowfully  decided  upon  the  last. 

It  shortly  appeared,  however,  that  the  undertaking  was 
not  to  be  abandoned  without  an  effort  being  made  to 
prevent  the  abandonment.  The  first  indication  of  such  an 
effort  came  to  me  in  the  shape  of  a  remarkable  proposal 
from  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill.     Usually  I   find  it  desirable  to  omit 


134  IMPENDING  CESSATION.  [1866. 

unimportant  parts  of  letters  quoted ;  but  here  it  seems  as 
well  to  give  in  full  Mr.  Mill's  letter  and  my  reply  to  it. 

"  Blackheath  Park. 

Feb.  4. 1866. 
Dear  Sir, 

On  arriving  here  last  week,  I  found  the  December  livraison  of  your 
Biology,  and  I  need  hardly  say  how  much  I  regretted  the  announcement  in 
the  paper  armexed  to  it.  What  the  case  calls  for,  however,  is  not  only 
regret,  but  remedy ;  and  I  think  it  is  right  that  you  should  be  indemnified 
by  the  readers  and  purchasers  of  the  series  for  the  loss  you  have  incurred 
by  it.  I  should  be  glad  to  contribute  my  part,  and  should  like  to  know  at 
how  much  you  estimate  the  loss,  and  whether  you  will  allow  me  to  speak  to 
friends  and  obtain  subscriptions  for  the  remainder.  My  own  impression  is 
that  the  sum  ought  to  be  raised  among  the  original  subscribers. 
"In  the  next  place,  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  publication  in  numbers  though 
it  may  have  been  the  best  means  which  presented  itself  at  the  time,  has 
had  an  unfavourable  eSect  on  the  sale,  and  that  a  complete  treatise  with 
your  name  to  it  would  attract  more  attention,  obtain  more  buyers,  and 
would  be  pretty  sure  to  sell  an  edition  in  a  few  years.  What  I  propose  is 
that  you  should  write  the  next  of  your  treatises,  and  that  I  should  guarantee 
the  publisher  against  loss,  i.e.  should  engage,  after  such  length  of  time  as 
may  be  agreed  on,  to  make  good  any  deficiency  that  may  occur,  not  exceeding 
a  given  sum,  that  sum  being  such  as  the  publisher  may  think  sufficient  to 
secure  him.  With  this  guarantee  you  could  have  your  choice  of  publishers, 
and  I  do  not  think  it  likely  that  there  would  be  any  loss,  while  I  am  sure 
that  it  could  in  no  case  be  considerable.  I  beg  that  you  will  not  consider 
this  proposal  in  the  light  of  a  personal  favour,  though  even  if  it  were  I 
should  still  hope  to  be  permitted  to  offer  it.  But  it  is  nothing  of  the  kind, 
— it  is  a  simple  proposal  of  co-operation  for  an  important  public  purpose, 
for  which  you  give  yonr  labour  and  have  given  your  health. 

I  am 

Dear  Sir, 

Very  truly  yours 

J.  S.  Mill." 
The  answer  I  wrote  to  this  letter  ran  as  follows  : — 

"  88  Kensington  Gardens  Square, 
7  Fehy-  1866. 
Dear  Sir, 

I  scarcely  know  how  properly  to  respond  to  your  very  kind  letter  of 
the  4th ;  or  what  to  say  in  due  acknowledgment  of  its  very  generous  proposals. 
Though  you  are  so  good  as  to  represent  them  as  made  on  public  grounds 
rather  than  personal  ones,  I  naturally  cannot  wholly  dissociate  the  two ; 
and  cannot  avoid,  therefore,  feeling  how  much  I  am  indebted  to  you  for  so 
noble  a  self-sacrifice  as  that  which  you  offer  to  make  in  furtherance  of  my 


^T.  46.]  IMPENDING  CESSATION.  135 

Bcheme.  I  fear,  however,  that  there  are  insurmountable  reasons  and  feelings 
of  mine,  standing  in  the  way  of  the  arrangement  yon  suggest. 
"  In  the  first  place  I  should  be  averse  to  either  asking,  or  having  asked  on 
my  behalf,  any  compensation  from  the  subscribers  for  the  losses  my  work 
has  entailed  on  me ;  even  were  those  losses  of  the  kind  you  infer  them  to  be, 
which  in  great  part  they  are  not.  It  is  only  the  volume  now  in  progress 
that  will  cost  more  for  printing,  paper,  illustrations  &o  than  will  be  received 
from  the  subscribers.  Preceding  volumes  have  done  something  more  than 
repay  their  expences — the  last  of  them,  however,  but  very  little.  The  losses 
which  deter  me  from  proceeding,  are  those  resulting  from  unremunerated 
labour,  and  the  continual  sinking  of  what  property  I  possess,  to  meet  my 
necessary  expences.  My  whole  course  since  1850,  when  I  began  publishing, 
has  been  that  of  doing  work  that  brought  either  loss  or  no  adequate  return ; 
and  I  have  been  enabled  to  continue  this  course  only  by  the  accident  that 
bequests  from  relations,  which  have  in  the  meantime  come  to  me,  have 
sufficed  to  eke  out  my  resources.  Had  it  not  been  for  a  legacy  from  an  uncle 
in  1853,  I  should  not  have  been  able  to  write  the  Principles  of  Psychology  ; 
and  I  should  inevitably  have  been  brought  to  a  stand  by  pecuniary  difficulties 
in  the  middle  of  First  Principles,  had  it  not  been  that  another  uncle,  who 
died  in  1860,  left  me  the  greater  part  of  his  small  property :  which  is,  how- 
ever, at  present  so  burdened  with  annuities  that  it  brings  me  in  very  little. 
The  result  has  been  that  all  along  I  have  been  obliged  to  go  on  eating  up 
my  capital — a  process  which  of  course  advances  with  increasing  rapidity. 
"  This  course  I  have  been  persevering  in,  hoping  that  eventually  the  tide 
would  turn,  and  that  I  should  be  no  longer  obliged  to  continue  sinking  what 
Uttle  I  possess.  But  finding,  in  the  course  of  last  year,  that  the  Kst  of 
subscribers  was  continuing  to  diminish,  and  that  the  sales  of  the  bound 
volume  of  the  Biology  had  not  reached  100  in  the  lapse  of  12  months,  I 
began  to  hesitate.  On  getting  together  all  the  data,  I  found  that  since  1850 
I  had  lost  nearly  £1,100.  Seeing  that  I  was  still  going  on  losing,  and  that 
my  sinking  of  capital  was  becoming  more  and  more  serious,  I  resolved  that 
I  would  desist.  Thus  you  see  that  the  difficulty  is  considerably  greater  than 
the  notice  of  discontinuance  had  led  you  to  infer ;  and  I  fear  that  the  plan 
you  have  so  kindly  proposed  will  not  meet  it.  Various  letters  from  subscribers, 
addressed  to  Messrs.  Williams  and  Norgate,  or  to  me,  have  proposed  arrange- 
ments for  avoiding  the  cessation.  To  these  letters  I  have  furnished  Messrs. 
Williams  and  Norgate  with  a  general  form  of  reply,  stating  that — 1st.  The 
doubling  the  subscription,  as  suggested  by  some,  would  probably  do  as  much 
harm  as  good.  2nd.  The  raising  a  publication-fund,  as  suggested  by  others, 
was  a  proposition  I  could  not  entertain.  3rd.  That  the  proposal  that  each 
subscriber  should  obtain  one  or  more  others,  was  one  which,  if  acted  upon 
generally,  might  be  effectual ;  but  that  I  declined  asking  the  subscribers  to 
do  this ;  and  that  any  such  thing,  if  done,  must  be  done  of  their  own  accord. 
' '  A  few  days  ago  Messrs.  Williams  and  Norgate  hinted  that  something  was 
likely  to  be  done  in  pursuance  of  this  last  proposal.    But  having  assumed 


136  IMPENDING  CESSATION.  [1866. 

an  absolutely  passive  attitude,  I  do  not  know  who  are  moving  in  the  matter, 
or  what  is  likely  to  result. 

"While  obliged,  as  you  will  thus  see,  to  decline  the  arrangement  which 
you  have  generously  offered  to  make,  I  shall  ever  have  pleasurable  remem- 
brance of  it  as  a  manifestation  of  feeling  between  authors  that  has  rarely 
been  paralleled. 

I  am,  dear  Sir, 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

Herbert  Spenceb.  " 
I  ougM  to  have  said,  rarely,  if  ever,  paralleled.     It  may 
be  doubted  whetber  there  was  ever  before  made  a  kindred 
proposal  by   one  author   to   another :  another,   too,  with 
whom  he  was  not  in  complete  agreement. 


Had  Mr.  Mill  been  in  England  at  the  time  when  the 
notice  was  issued,  a  letter  from  him  would  probably  have 
been  the  first  indication  received  by  me  of  an  endeavour  to 
avert  the  impending  cessation.  But,  as  is  implied  towards 
the  close  of  my  reply,  before  I  received  the  letter  above 
quoted,  certain  others  of  my  friends  had  taken  action. 
A  letter  to  Prof.  Youmans,  dated  2  March,  1866,  says  : — 
"  Mill  has  since  called  on  Williams  and  Norgate,  and  is,  I  believe,  co- 
operating with  those  who  were  previously  moving  in  the  matter;  but  who 
they  are,  and  what  they  are  doing,  I  do  not  know." 

And  then,  in  a  letter  of  April  10,  I  find  a  passage  saying 
what  had  been  done  and  what  was  likely  to  be  done.  It 
runs  as  follows  : — 

"  As  to  the  progress  of  matters  here,  though  I  have  been  aware  from  hints 
dropped  for  some  time  past  that  something  was  doing  among  those  interested 
in  preventing  the  impending  stoppage,  I  did  not  learn  until  two  days  ago, 
what  was  the  nature  of  the  course  taken  ;  and  when  I  did  learn  it,  a  mis- 
apprehension very  nearly  led  me  to  put  a  peremptory  stop  to  it.  Indeed  I 
was  on  my  way  to  the  printers  with  the  draft  of  an  adverse  circular,  when  I 
learnt  the  true  state  of  the  case.  It  is  now  probable  that,  after  insisting  on 
certain  qualifying  conditions,  I  may  agree  to  the  arrangement  that  has  been 
secretly  made  ;  and  which  I  find  I  can  hardly  resist  without  quarrelling  with 
my  friends  who  have  made  it.  It  seems  that  the  arrangement  has  resulted 
under  the  pressure  of  a  number  of  persons  interested,  chiefly  wealthy,  who 
were  anxious  that  something  should  be  done  to  meet  the  difficulty  ;  and  who, 
under  the  guidance  of  Huxley,  Tyudall,  Busk,  Lubbock  and   Mill,  have 


Mt  46.]  IMPENDING  CESSATION. 

arranged  to  take  a  large  number  of  copies  (250)  for  distribution  ;  and  they 
say  that  I  cannot  prevent  them.  However,  I  shall  refrain  from  opposing  the 
arrangement  only  on  condition  of  a  large  reduction  in  the  number  (down  to 
150)  and  the  erasure  of  the  names  of  some  of  those  concerned  "[who,  I  thought, 
ought  not  thus  to  tax  themselves]. 

Ttis  arrangement,  with  the  qualifications  indicated,  was 
agreed  upon ;  and  there  was  issued  a  circular  in  conformity 
with  it,  signed  by  Mill,  Huxley,  Tyndall,  Busk  and 
Lubbock  (see  Appendix  C).  Naturally  my  feeling  was 
one  of  mingled  satisfaction  and  dissatisfaction — satisfaction, 
that  so  much  sympathy  should  be  shown  me  by  distin- 
guished friends,  whose  measures  thus  promised  to  prevent 
the  suspension ;  and  dissatisfaction,  that  such  measures 
should  be  needful. 

But  neither  in  its  original  form  nor  in  its  modified  form 
was  this  arrangement  carried  out.  Before  much  had 
been  achieved,  there  occurred  a  change  in  my  position 
which  led  me  to  write  a  letter  expressing  the  wish  that  the 
circular  should  be  cancelled.  This  was  done  by  a  second 
circular  (see  Appendix  C). 

What  reason  I  had  for  taking  this  seemingly-strange 
step,  which  undid  all  that  my  friends  had  taken  the  trouble 
to  do,  will  be  seen  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER   XLIII. 
SAD  EVENTS. 

1866-67.     ^t.  46-47. 

Eaelt  one  morning  towards  the  close  of  April,  I  received 
a  telegram  whicli  led  me  to  take  the  first  train  to  Derby. 
The  cause  will  he  at  once  inferred ;  and  the  issue  of  that 
cause  will  he  seen  in  the  following  passage  from  a  letter 
to  Professor  Youmans,  dated  May  7  : — 

"  Before  you  receive  this  you  will  probably  have  received  the  Derby  paper 
which  I  posted  to  you  on  Friday,  containing  a  paragraph  which  you  will 
read  with  melancholy  interest :  a  brief  tribute  of  respect  to  my  late  father. 
I  was  called  down  to  him  by  telegraph  this  day  fortnight,  and  found  him 
seriously  ill,  but  not,  as  I  supposed,  or  as  any  one  supposed,  in  immediate 
danger.  He  got  gradually  worse,  however,  and  died  on  the  Thursday  night. 
As  you  may  imagine  the  shock  has  been  great  and  has  unnerved  me  greatly. 
Indeed  I  found  my  system  running  down  so  rapidly,  and  such  serious 
symptoms  showing  themselves,  that  I  have  been  obliged  to  come  up  to  town 
for  a  few  days  change  of  scene,  lest  I  should  fall  into  some  nervous  condi- 
tion out  of  which  it  would  take  me  a  long  time  to  recover. 

Fortunately  we  are  able  to  keep  this  sad  loss  from  my  mother.  She  has 
gradually  fallen  into  that  state  of  mental  debility  and  forgetfulness  which 
renders  it  easy  to  evade  her  inquiries.  Not  remembering  things  for  more 
than  a  few  hours,  and  often  for  not  more  than  a  few  minutes,  she  is 
habitually  under  the  impression  that  it  is  but  a  few  hours  since  she  saw  my 
father.  It  is  a  great  satisfaction  that  she  is  saved  from  the  suffering  which 
knowledge  of  the  truth  would  give  her. 

I  return  to  Derby  probably  at  the  close  of  this  week." 
But  for  an  imprudence,  my  father  might  well  have  lived 
another  ten  years.  Some  workmen  were  altering  the 
drainage  on  his  property,  and  he,  not  duly  heeding  the 
bitter  East  wind,  stood  by  giving  directions  :  being  at 
the  time  in  a  depressed  state,  caused  by  long-continued 
anxiety   about  my  mother.      A    resulting   congestion,   or 


^T.  46.]  SAD  EVENTS:  139 

inflammation,  of  the  lungs  quickly  became  serious.  He 
did  not  die  of  the  disease,  however,  but  of  the  treatment. 
The  physician  (now  long  since  deceased)  believing  that 
he  would  die  of  exhaustion  unless  he  got  rest,  decided 
to  administer  morphia.  Probably  he  did  not  allow  suf- 
ficiently for  the  extreme  enfeeblement  and  for  the  choked 
state  of  the  lungs;  for  the  dose  he  gave  was  an  over- 
dose and  proved  fatal. 

I  name  this  detail  as  introductory  to  a  detail  of  more 
significance.  My  father  died  in  a  morphia-dream,  the 
subject  of  which  was  the  high-handed  action  of  Governor 
Eyre  in  Jamaica.  Since  the  days  of  the  anti-slavery 
agitation  he  had  ever  been  deeply  interested  on  behalf 
of  the  Negroes;  and  the  Eyre-prosecution,  then  pending, 
greatly  occupied  his  mind.  His  last  audible  words  con- 
cerned the  controversy  which  was  raging  at  the  time ;  and 
implied  a  dim  idea  of  his  state  mingled  with  the  ideas 
of  his  dream ;  for  they  expressed  the  complaint  that  when 
he  was  so  ill,  it  was  cruel  to  draw  him  into  an  argument 
about  the  matter. 

It  was  not  an  unfit  ending  for  a  consciousness  which  all 
through  life  had  been  occupied  with  the  interests  of  his 
fellows  and  those  of  mankind  at  large.  The  ambition 
which,  when  I  was  a  boy,  he  so  often  set  before  me — to  be 
"  a  useful  member  of  society " — was  an  ambition  ever 
dominant  in  himself :  too  dominant,  indeed,  for  he  some- 
times unduly  sacrificed  personal  welfare  to  public  welfare. 
Would  that  the  world  were  peopled  with  such.  What  a 
marvellously  different  world  it  would  be  ! 

Though  at  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  seventy-six, 
my  father  had  not  made  a  will.  I  suppose  this  mattered 
little  j  for  the  disposition  of  his  property  by  will  would 
probably  have  been  the  same  as  that  which  resulted  from 
his  intestacy. 

Of  course  the  settlement  of  his  affairs  kept  me  a  good 


140  SAD  EVENTS.  [1866. 

deal  at  Derby;  and  there  by  and  bye  came  detentions 
caused  by  the  sale  of  property.  A  number  of  small 
houses  possessed  by  him  I  promptly  decided  not  to  keep. 
Even  when  an  agent  is  employed  to  collect  rents  and  look 
after  minor  repairs,  small  house-property  entails  on  its 
owner  much  trouble  and  vexation.  All  through  life  I  had 
seen  the  way  in  which  my  father  was  worried  by  matters 
of  business  which  his  agent  had  to  refer  to  him ;  and  all 
through  the  latter  part  of  his  life  I  had  seen  the  way  in 
which  he  was  further  worried  by  the  interferences  of  the 
sanitary  authorities,  who  were  continually  insisting  on 
alterations  (some  of  them  made  necessary  by  their  own 
blunders)  and  occasionally  driving  away  tenants  by  the 
insanitary  results  they  produced.  Not  even  had  I  been 
likely  to  live  permanently  in  Derby,  would  I  have  con- 
tinued to  own  property  which,  troublesome  enough  other- 
wise, had  become  a  source  of  perpetual  exasperations. 

But  the  care  of  my  mother,  which  now  devolved  upon 
me,  was  the  chief  cause  for  my  frequent  presence  in 
Derby.  Though  a  good  nurse,  under  the  oversight  of  a 
sister-in-law,  was  to  be  trusted  to  a  considerable  extent, 
yet  visits  by  me  at  short  intervals  were  obviously  necessary. 
The  carrying  on  of  my  work  had  of  course  to  be  adjusted 
as  best  it  might.  Compromising  the  requirements  enabled 
me  to  diminish  the  hindrances.  During  a  fortnight  in 
London,  where  I  had  my  amanuensis,  materials,  and  sources 
of  information,  I  prepared  sufficient  manuscript  to  occupy 
me  something  like  a  week  at  Derby  in  revising ;  and  then 
came  another  fortnight  in  London,  followed  by  another 
week  at  Derby. 

Alternations  thus  arranged,  determined  the  course  of 
my  life  during  the  remainder  of  1866  and  the  first  half 
of  1867. 

July  of  this   year   brought  me   a  great  surprise.     My 
friend   Youmans  arrived,  and  was  the  bearer  of  startling 


.Et.  46.]  SAD  EVENTS.  141 

intelligence  and  Bomething  more.  It  appeared  that  wlien 
the  notice  of  cessation  reached  him,  he  determined  that 
my  undertaking  should  not  drop  if  he  could  prevent  it; 
and  with  characteristic  energy  he  began  to  provide  for 
its  continuance.  Saying  nothing  to  me  about  the  matter, 
he  had,  during  the  intervening  six  months,  busied  himself 
in  raising  a  fund  which  he  arranged  should  come  to  me  in 
the  form  of  a  testimonial ;  or  rather,  in  a  form  which,  as 
it  turned  out,  left  me  little  choice  but  to  accept.  He 
handed  me  a  letter  from  Mr.  Robert  B.  Minturn,  of  the 
firm  of  Grinnell,  Minturn  &  Co.,  who  had  undertaken  to 
act  as  a  kind  of  trustee,  and  who,  telling  me  what  the 
sympathy  of  the  Americans  had  prompted  them  to  do, 
hoped  that  I  would  not  prevent  their  sympathy  from  taking 
effect.  Unavoidably  this  action  of  my  American  friends 
eventually  became  known ;  and  soon  after  midsummer 
statements  concerning  the  results  had  appeared  in 
American  journals  and  had  been  copied  in  some  English 
journals.  These  statements  were  incorrect ;  and  Prof. 
Youmans  thought  it  needful  to  publish  in  one  of  the 
London  papers  a  letter  containing  a  correct  statement. 
As  this  letter  gives  the  facts  in  a  more  authoritative  way 
than  I  can  give  them  myself,  it  will  be   best  to  quote  it. 

"  Aug.  11.  1866. 
Sni, — The  paragraph  which  you  lately  published  on  the  authority  of  the 
American  papers,  "  that  Professor  Youmans  recently  left  that  country  in 
order  to  present  to  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  5,000  dollars  and  a  very  valuable 
gold  watch,  as  a  testimonial  from  his  American  admirers,"  requires  some 
correction ;  as  it  mis-states  both  the  amount  contributed  and  my  own 
purpose  in  coming  to  this  country.  The  case  is  this : — Nearly  all  Mr. 
Spencer's  writings  have  been  republished  in  America,  where  they  have  been 
both  widely  read  and  very  highly  appreciated.  Many  of  his  friends  there, 
feeling  a  deep  indebtedness  to  him  for  works  by  which  they  know  he  had 
been  the  loser  to  a  serious  amount,  thought  that  tliey  could  not  more  suitably 
express  their  gratitude  than  by  a  substantial  testimonial.  But  knowing  that 
Mr.  Spencer  had  decisively  declined  some  overtures  on  the  part  of  his  friends 
in  England,  having  the  kindred  purpose  of  preventing  the  cessation  of  his 
philosophical  series,  and  preferring  not  to  be  placed  in  a  like  predicament, 
they  invested  7,000  dollars  in  his  name  in  public  securities,  which,  as  they 


142  SAD  EVENTS.  [1866. 

belong  to  no  one  else,  he  is  of  course  at  liberty  either  to  appropriate  or  leave 
to  acoamulate  for  the  benefit  of  his  heirs. 

E.  L.  YOUMANS.  " 

Thus  I  was  practically  put  under  coercion;  for  even 
could  I  have  decided  to  baulk  my  American  friends, 
it  would  have  been  absurd  to  do  this  by  letting  their 
gift  and  its  accumulated  interest  go  eventually  to  an 
unknown  person. 

The  presentation  watch  named  in  Prof.  Youmans'  letter, 
was  one  of  those  manufactured  by  the  Waltham  Watch- 
Company,  at  the  time  when  they  were  making  their 
reputation — watches  of  a  quality  which  they  presently 
ceased  to  make ;  as  I  learned  long  afterwards  from  their 
agent  over  here.  It  has  proved  a  great  treasure  as  a 
time-keeper,  and  has  excited  the  envy  of  friends  who  have 
known  its  performances.* 

In  July  1866  the  British  Association  was  at  Nottingham. 
I  had  never  been  to  one  of  their  meetings.  Now,  however, 
partly  because  it  met  so  near  my  home  but  chiefly  because 
my  friend  Youmans  wished  to  be  present,  I  spent  a  good 
many  days  there :  going  to  and  from  Derby  every  day. 

While  recalling  the  incidents  of  the  occasion,  there  comes 
back  to  me  one  which  has  but  little  connexion  with  the 
occasion.  I  have  above  referred  to  the  fact  that  the  Byre- 
prosecution  was  then  pending,  and  that  hot  controversies 
were  going  on  concerning  it.     These  controversies  arose 

*  I  find  in  a  letter,  written  in  December,  1880,  after  the  watch  had  been  in 
my  possession  fourteen  years,  a  paragraph  respecting  it  which  may  fitly  be 
quoted : — "I  have  several  times  intended  to  tell  you  how  wonderfully 
well  my  American  watch  has  been  going  of  late.  It  has  always  gone 
with  perfect  regularity,  either  losing  a  little  or  gaining  a  little  ;  but  of  course 
it  has  been  difficult  to  adjust  its  regulator  to  such  a  nicety  as  that  there 
should  be  scarcely  any  loss  or  gain.  This,  however,  was  done  last  summer. 
It  was  set  by  the  chronometer-maker  in  July,  and  it  is  now  half  a  minute 
too  slow ;  never  having  varied  more  than  half  a  minute  from  the  true  time 
since  the  period  when  it  was  set.  This  is  wonderful  going.  As  the  Admiral 
says,  one  might  very  well  navigate  a  ship  by  it."  [In  1890  it  went  with 
equal  nicety  :  lost  42  seconds  in  half  a  year  .J 


Mt.  46.]  SAD  EVENTS.  143 

at  times  and  places  often  unfit ;  as  I  remember  happened 
during  a  dinner  at  the  house  of  Dr.  Ransom,  who 
entertained  daily  while  the  meeting  of  the  Association 
continued.  I  was  taking  an  active  part  in  the  matter  j 
having  become  a  member  of  the  Jamaica  Committee, 
formed  for  carrying  on  the  prosecution :  a  committee 
which,  headed  by  John  Mill,  was  remarkable  for  containing 
all  the  leading  evolutionists — Darwin,  Huxley,  Wallace, 
and  myself,  besides  others  less  known.  Indeed  the 
evolutionists,  considering  their  small  number,  contributed 
a  far  larger  proportion  to  the  committee  than  any  other 
class.  I  may  add  here  that  notwithstanding  a  charge 
made  by  Lord  Chief  Justice  Cockburn  to  the  Grand  Jury, 
thoroughly  justifying  the  prosecution,  and  emphatically 
denying  the  assumed  power  of  a  governor  to  proclaim 
martial  law  as  Governor  Eyre  had  done,  the  Grand  Jury 
ignored  the  bill;  and  thus  tacitly  asserted  that  a  deputy 
ruler  may  rightly  suspend  the  established  law  whenever 
he  considers  it  needful,  and  set  up  military  tribunals  to  hang 
or  shoot  or  otherwise  punish  as  they  may  think  well. 
That  cultivated  Englishmen  should  not  have  perceived 
that  the  real  question  at  issue  was  whether  free  institutions 
were  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  a  chief  magistrate,  seems  at 
first  marvellous  ;  but  it  is  marvellous  only  on  the  supposition 
that  men's  judgments  are  determined  by  reason,  whereas 
they  are  in  far  larger  measure  determined  by  feeling. 

Of  the  proceedings  of  the  Association,  some  few  memories 
remain.  There  was  the  presidential  address  by  Mr.  (now 
Sir  William)  Grove,  on  "Continuity;"  more  instructive  to 
the  uninitiated  than  to  the  advanced.  There  was  a  lecture, 
too,  by  Dr.  (now  Sir  Joseph)  Hooker,  narrating  some 
results  of  the  Antarctic  Expedition.  And  then  there  was 
the  dinner  of  the  Red  Lions  :  an  annual  occasion  on  which 
the  saying  Dulce  est  etc.  is  taken  to  heart. 

After  the  meeting  of  the   Association   was  over,  Prof. 


144  SAD  EVENTS;  [1866. 

Youmans  and  I  started  upon  a  tour  in  North  "Wales  which 
I  induced  him  to  take  with  me  :  his  assent  being,  I  suspect, 
due  more  to  the  wish  for  a  favourable  occasion  for  pro- 
longed talks  and  consultations,  than  to  a  desire  to  see  the 
scenery ;  for  his  sight  had  been  so  impaired  by  the  chronic 
ophthalmia  which  at  one  time  entailed  years  of  blindness, 
that  he  was  scarcely  able  to  appreciate  landscape  beauties. 

Not  pausing  till  we  reached  Beaumaris,  we  spent  one  day 
there,  another  at  Carnarvon,  and  another  if  not  two  at 
Bedgellert.  Thence  an  enjoyable  coach-drive  by  Port- 
Aberglaslyn,  Harlech,  and  along  the  sea-coast,  brought  us 
to  Aberdovey.  Here  we  took  lodgings  for  a  week,  and 
Mrs.  Youmans  joined  us  from  London.  Reading  and 
working  mainly  occupied  my  energetic  friend.  Leaving 
him  indoors,  busy  with  an  article  for  the  New  Englander, 
demolishing  a  critic  who  had  attacked  me,  I  made  use  of 
the  out-door  opportunities :  one  day  being  spent  in  a 
bootless  fishing  excursion,  and  another  in  making  an 
expedition  with  Mrs.  Youmans  to  Aberystwith.  The  train 
which,  at  the  end  of  the  week,  took  my  friends  back  to 
London,  took  me  as  far  as  Machynlleth ;  where  I  bade  them 
a  temporary  good-bye  and  set  out  on  a  pedestrian  tour. 
The  first  day's  walk,  during  the  greater  part  of  which 
I  had  Cader  Idris  before  me,  brought  me  to  Dolgelly. 
Before  the  end  of  the  next  day  I  reached  Bala.  And  the 
day  after  that  saw  me  at  Llangollen;  whence  I  took  the 
railway  for  Chester. 

What  was  my  subsequent  course  I  cannot  now  remember, 
and  there  are  no  letters  to  remind  me.  I  have  long  been 
under  the  impression  that  from  1856  onwards  until  quite 
recently,  I  had  invariably  made  an  annual  visit  to  some 
part  of  Scotland ;  but  I  now  incline  to  think  that  in  1866 
an  exception  occurred.  I  believe  that  I  returned  to  Derby, 
and  thence,  after  a  time,  to  London :  possibly  having 
decided  that  under  the  circumstances  it  was  needful  that  I 


Mt.  46.]  SAD  EVENTS,  145 

Bhould   confine   my   movements   to  places  within  a  day's 
journey  of  home. 

On  going  back  and  noting  my  various  changes  of  resi- 
dence, the  reader  might  reasonably  infer  that  I  am  by 
nature  nomadic.  But  his  generalization  would  be  dis- 
proved by  the  single  fact  now  to  be  named.  On  my  return 
to  town  towards  the  end  of  September  1866,  I  settled 
myself  at  37  Qiteen's  Gardens,  Lancaster  Gate,  and  have 
made  that  my  home  up  to  the  present  time — a  period  of 
over  21  years. 

The  house  is  situated  in  a  salubrious  locality,  and  has 
Kensington  Gardens  within  three  or  four  minutes  walk. 
Experience  proved  it  to  be  quiet  and  well  managed ;  and  it 
contained  a  group  of  inmates  above  the  average  of  those 
one  finds  living  en  pension.  There  was  a  retired  govern- 
ment officer  belonging  to  the  Stores  Department — a 
Mauritian  of  French  extraction,  honourable  in  feeling, 
a  great  snuff-taker,  and  one  who  regretted  that  duelling 
had  ceased.  Next  to  him  came  an  admiral,  who  every 
day  drank  the  Queen's  health,  and  displayed  piety  and 
militancy  in  a  not  unusual  combination.  Another  naval 
officer  there  was  who  uttered  Radical  sentiments,  fos- 
tered in  him,  I  fancy,  by  disappointment  in  his  profes- 
sion, for  which  he  was  evidently  incompetent;  and  there 
was  also  a  captain  in  the  army,  occupied  in  some  philan- 
thropic work  in  London.  Then  came  a  maiden  lady, 
between  70  and  80,  who  had  acquired  a  certain  stock  of 
information,  ideas,  and  feelings,  in  her  teens,  and  had 
never  since  added  to  or  modified  them.  These  were  fix- 
tures. After  them  may  be  named  sundry  who  were  semi- 
settled — the  wife  of  a  judge  in  the  West  Indies,  staying  in 
England  for  her  health,  pretty  and  inane;  an  Indian  tea 
planter,  quiet  and  not  unintelligent;  an  Australian  with 
wife  and  daughter,  come  back  to  spend  his  money.  From 
time  to  time  there  were  other  visitors  from  the  Colonics — 

10 


146  SAD  E^^NTS.  [1867. 

from  New  Zealand^  from  the  Cape^  from  Canada.  Occasion- 
ally, too^  there  were  Americans ;  of  whom  I  remember  the 
episcopal  bishop  of  Illinois  with  his  children.  And  then 
to  these  settled  and  semi-settled^  must  be  added  those  who 
came  for  short  periods — for  the  London  season,  or  for  a 
few  weeks.  Humdrum  was  the  circle  they  formed,  as 
indeed  are  most  social  circles.  But  on  the  whole  I  was 
tolerably  contented  with  my  surroundings. 

I  have  said  that  37  Queen's  G-ardens  was  the  address  of 
my  new  abode;  but  after  a  few  years  this  address  was 
slightly  changed.  Our  hostess,  Miss  Shickle,  took  the  next 
house  No.  38,  and  by  a  doorway  broken  through,  united 
the  two  houses.  Thereafter  No  38  became  my  address. 
As  the  dining-room  and  general  drawing-room  were  in  No. 
37,  No.  38  was  quieter ;  and  I  was  enabled  to  seclude 
myself  as  much  as  I  wished.  In  fact  I  saw  no  more  of  my 
fellow  guests  than  one  sees  of  those  who  daily  come  to  the 
table  d'hote  of  a  Continental  hotel.  As  the  arrangements 
were  such  as  freed  me  from  all  trouble  and  provided  for 
my  needs  satisfactorily,  I  was  never  seriously  tempted  to 
make  any  change. 

At  the  same  time  that  I  settled  myself  in  Queen's  Gar- 
dens, I  took,  at  No.  2  Leinster  Place,  about  three  minutes 
walk  off,  a  room  to  serve  me  as  a  study,  with  the  option  of 
taking  an  additional  room  if  need  be.  Here  I  collected  and 
arranged  all  my  books,  papers,  and  other  things  needful 
for  work  ;  and  here  I  spent  my  mornings,  I  thus  protected 
myself  against  all  interruptions  :  the  servants  at  Queen's 
Gardens  being  forbidden  to  give  any  further  reply  to 
visitors  than  that  I  was  not  at  home. 

A  blank  which  occurs  here,  alike  in  my  memory  and 
in  records,  extends  to  January  14,  1867 ;  at  which  date  I 
find  that  I  sent  to  my  American  friend  a  letter  containing 
the  following  passage. 

"  I  think  it  is  since  I  wrote  last,  that  they  have  been  wanting  nie  to 
become  a  candidate  for  the  professorship  of  Mental  Philosophy  and 'Logic 


Mr.  46.]  SAD  EVENTS.  147 

at  University  College — a  post  for  which  they  would  not  have  Martineau, 
who  had  offered  himself.  I  declined,  however,  without  hesitation.  Since 
then,  I  have  had  to  resist  similar  overtures  made  by  Masson,  who  wanted 
me  to  stand  for  the  Moral  Philosophy  chair  at  Edinburgh,  which  is  Ukely 
Boon  to  be  vacant.  One  proposal,  however,  I  have  assented  to.  Mr.  Grote 
wishes  to  nominate  me  on  the  senate  of  the  London  University,  when  there 
occurs  an  occasion ;  and  as  this  will  not  involve  much  tax  on  my  time,  I 
have  made  no  objection. " 

This  extract  yields  me  conclusive  proof  that  in  respect 
even  of  interesting  occurrences,  my  memory  has  in  some 
cases  failed  utterly.  In  the  absence  of  the  above  passage 
I  should  have  been  not  simply  unconscious  that  I  had  ever 
been  asked  to  become  a  candidate  for  a  professorship,  but 
should  not  have  believed  it  had  it  been  alleged. 

I  may  add  that  Mr.  Grrote's  proposal  came  to  nothing. 
Whether  the  nomination  was  ever  made  I  do  not  know, 
for  I  never  heard  anything  further  about  the  matter. 

The  next  incident  to  be  set  down  is  one  of  which  I  need 
no  reminder.  Had  I  needed  one,  however,  I  should  have 
found  it  in  my  next  letter,  dated  February  25.  Instead  of 
describing  it  afresh  it  will  be  best  to  describe  it  in  the 
words  then  used  to  my  American  friend,  as  follows  : — 

"I  am  not  sure  whether  I  mentioned  to  you  when  you  were  here,  that  I 
had  been  devising,  and  was  about  to  have  made,  an  invalid  bed  on  a  new 
principle.  During  my  father's  brief  illness,  I  was  struck  with  the  amount 
of  suffering  and  exhaustion  entailed  on  patients  when  they  are  very  feeble, 
by  turning  them  over,  raising  them  up,  getting  them  out  of  bed  and  into  it 
again  &c.  Thinking  over  the  matter  after  my  father's  death,  it  seemed  to 
me  that  it  would  be  very  easy  to  avoid  all  these  evils,  and  to  make  a  bed 
that  would  put  a  patient  in  any  conceivable  attitude,  and  turn  him  over,  or 
put  him  out  of  bed,  without  any  effort  on  his  part.  As  my  mother  was 
getting  very  feeble,  and  the  time  seemed  soon  likely  to  come  when  such  a 
bed  would  be  of  advantage  to  her,  I  decided  to  carry  out  my  idea.  In  the 
course  of  the  autumn  I  put  the  working  drawings  into  the  hands  of  a  man 
in  Derby ;  and  after  a  great  deal  of  delay,  caused  partly  by  my  present 
frequent  absence,  in  London,  and  partly  by  the  difficulty  of  getting  things 
done  just  as  I  wanted,  I  succeeded,  about  a  month  ago,  in  getting  it  com- 
pleted and  put  to  use.  Since  then  my  mother  has  been  in  it,  and,  to  my 
great  satisfaction,  likes  it  extremely.  Enclosed  I  send  you  a  set  of  photo- 
graphs, which  will  give  you  a  general  idea  of  its  construction  and  the 
various  things  it  will  do.     Considering  it  is  the  first  made,  it  answers  very 

10* 


148  SAD  EVENTS.  [1867. 

well ;  and  in  making  a  second,  it  can  be  in  several  respects  bo  improved  aa 
to  answer  perfectly:  being,  at  the  same  time,  rendered  both  lighter  and 
cheaper.  As  you  will  see  it  consists  of  two  frame-works  ;  the  upper  of  which 
is  hinged  in  such  ways  as  to  admit  of  raising  the  body  to  any  inclination 
and  bending  the  legs  to  any  angle ;  while  the  lower  frame-work,  supporting 
this  upper  one,  rests  on  a  large  ball  and  socket,  admitting  of  movement  in 
all  directions,  and  admitting  of  being  locked  fast  in  any  position.  .  .  . 
"I  decided  not  to  take  out  any  protection  for  the  idea:  wishing  that  an 
appliance  which  wUl,  as  I  think,  so  greatly  diminish  human  suffering,  should 
be  sold  as  cheaply  as  possible ;  and  I  have  just  been  making  an  agreement 
with  an  invalid  bed-maker,  binding  him  down  to  a  moderate  rate  of  profit. 
I  hope  not  long  hence  to  send  you  photographs  of  the  frame -work  in  its 
improved  form. 

"  Meanwhile,  if  you  should  think  well,  you  might,  when  occasion  offers, 
inquire  for  some  fit  man  to  undertake  the  manufacture  of  it  in  New  York  : 
taking  care,  however,  as  I  have  done,  not  to  disclose  the  idea  until  some 
kind  of  agreement  is  made,  such  as  to  secure  its  sale  at  a  moderate  price." 

Though  it  is  five  months  later  in  date,  I  may  most  con- 
veniently add  here  a  passage  from  another  letter  referring 
to  this  matter. 

"  After  long  provoking  delays,  and  no  end  of  bother,  I  have  got  completed, 
and  brought  to  London,  the  improved  invalid-bed.  Various  medical  men, 
Bence  Jones,  Sharpey,  Lockhart-Clark,  Marshall,  Dunne,  Bastian,  Hart  &o. 
have  been  to  see  it,  and  very  much  approve  of  it." 

My  decision  not  to  patent  the  invalid-bed  proved  to  be 
ill-advised.  I  hoped  to  facilitate  the  use  of  it,  but  experi- 
ence proved  that  I  hindered  the  use  of  it.  Had  I  made 
it  a  protected  invention,  I  might  have  induced  some  one  to 
undertake  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  it ;  but  as  it  was, 
no  one  thought  it  worth  while  to  invest  the  necessary 
capital.  As  I  have  not  myself  had  the  spare  energy 
requisite  to  bring  it  into  use,  it  has  remained  unused.  (For 
description  and  illustration  see  Appendix  D.) 

Such  ease  from  comfort  and  from  variety  of  attitude 
as  was  given  by  the  invalid-bed,  though  in  the  opinion 
of  the  nurse  it  prolonged  life  for  some  months,  could  of 
course  not  do  more  than  this.  As  spring  advanced  into 
summer,  more  than  one  sudden  summons  to  Derby  indi- 
cated that  the  last  days  were  approaching ;  and  soon  after 


MT.i7.l  SAD  EVENTSi  149 

midsummer  came  the  close  of  a  life  which  had  been  full  of 
quiet  virtues.  Here  is  the  announcement  of  it  to  my 
American  friend. 

•'  You  will  infer  from  the  black  border  what  has  happened.  I  am  now 
alone  in  the  world — having  no  nearer  relatives  than  cousins ;  with  none  of 
whom  I  have  any  sympathy, 

"My  mother  after  her  long  period  of  feebleness  died  on  Sunday — having  had 
but  a  week  of  positive  illness.  For  these  two  years  her  life  has  been  so 
monotonous  and  burdensome  a  one  that,  sad  as  the  ending  of  it  necessarily 
seems,  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  cessation  of  a  painful  consciousness." 

The  failure  of  the  faculties  which  had  for  years  been 
going  on,  was  fortunately  not  of  a  distressing  kind;  but 
rather  one  which  tended  to  mitigate,  by  obliviousness,  the 
evils  to  be  borne.  During  this  mental  decay  the  ideas  and 
sentiments  which  had  been  dominant  throughout  life, 
became  more  dominant  by  contrast  with  those  which 
faded.  It  was  pathetic  to  see  how,  when  there  was  no 
longer  the  power  to  discharge  domestic  duties  and  religious 
observances,  they  constantly  occupied  the  mind.  Early  in 
the  day  came  directions  about  household  matters ;  and 
later  in  the  day  came  repeated  suggestions  that  it  was  time 
to  prepare  for  going  to  chapel.  These  alternate  thoughts 
survived  to  the  last ;  and  thus  ended  a  life  of  monotonous 
routine,  very  little  relieved  by  positive  pleasures. 

I  look  back  upon  it  regretfully :  thinking  how  small 
were  the  sacrifices  which  I  made  for  her  in  comparison 
with  the  great  sacrifices  which,  as  a  mother,  she  made  for 
me  in  my  early  days.  In  human  life  as  we  at  present 
know  it,  one  of  the  saddest  traits  is  the  dull  sense  of  filial 
obligations  which  exists  at  the  time  when  it  is  possible  to 
discharge  them  with  something  like  fulness,  in  contrast 
with  the  keen  sense  of  them  which  arises  when  such 
discharge  is  no  longer  possible. 


PART    X. 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

RE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES. 

1867.     ^t.  47. 

The  house  which,  from  the  age  of  seven  to  the  age  of 
forty-seven,  had  been  my  home — ^practically  at  some  times 
and  nominally  at  all  other  times — was  now  my  home  no 
longer.  There  remained  nothing  to  tie  me  to  it  beyond 
the  associations  which  had  clustered  in  and  around  it 
during  forty  years.  And  these,  some  of  them  pleasurable 
and  some  of  them  otherwise,  were  not  such  as  to  outweigh 
the  motives  for  permanent  residence  in  London. 

To  the  town,  though  it  was  my  birthplace,  I  did  not 
feel  any  particular  attachment.  "  Here  I  am  again  at  dull 
Derby"  was  the  internal  exclamation  I  often  made  when 
arriving  by  train ;  and  the  country  immediately  around  it 
had  no  such  beauties  as  to  compensate  for  its  dulness. 
Only  three  families  which  I  cared  much  about  now  lived 
in  or  near  it;  so  that  the  social  attractions  were  not  great. 
And  then  the  climate  did  not  suit  me :  it  is  anything  but 
invigorating.  Thus  other  feelings  than  filial  were  not 
strong  enough  to  make  life  at  Derby  desirable. 

Soon  after  my  mother's  death  I  therefore  arranged  to 
give  up  the  house.  Reserving  valued  relics  and  such  few 
pieces  of  furniture  as  promised  to  be  useful  in  London,  and 
distributing  the  rest  among  my  relations,  I  surrendered  the 
key  to  the  landlord.  Thereafter  Derby  knew  me  no  more, 
save  in  the  character  of  an  occasional  visitor  to  friends. 

Already     in     Chapter     XL,     which      tells     how,     when 


154  RE-CASTING  FIRST  PBINGIPLES.        [1867. 

writing  tlie  Classification  of  the  Sciences  there  resulted  the 
discovery  that  First  Principles  had  been  organized  wrongly, 
I  named  the  design,  thereupon  formed,  of  re-organizing 
it  at  the  first  convenient  opportunity.  A  letter  shows  that 
I  had  intended  to  do  this  as  soon  as  Vol.  I  of  the  Biology 
was  completed.  When  that  time  came,  however,  I  found 
that  there  was  still  unsold  a  large  portion  of  the  original 
edition  of  First  Principles.  Had  my  means  been  consider- 
able, I  might  have  been  extravagant  enough  to  sacrifice 
this;  but  I  could  not  afford  to  do  so,  and  had  to  wait  for 
its  gradual  disappearance  by  sale.  At  the  close  of  March 
1867,  when  the  second  volume  of  the  Biology  was  finished, 
this  remainder  was,  I  presume,  all  or  nearly  all  gone ;  and 
I  eagerly  commenced  the  long-suspended  project. 

I  say  eagerly,  because  during  the  intervening  years 
there  had  continually  recurred  the  consciousness  that  I 
had  left  outstanding  a  seriously  imperfect  piece  of  work 
— a  consciousness  which  I  was  anxious  to  get  rid  of. 
Some  vague  dissatisfaction  had,  indeed,  arisen  when  the 
book  was  originally  written ;  and,  when,  in  a  chapter 
entitled  "  The  Conditions  Essential  to  Evolution,"  there 
was  recognized  the  fact  that  Evolution,  as  I  then  conceived 
it,  was  not  universal,  but  that  there  were  certain  aggre- 
gates, such  as  crystals,  which  did  not  undergo  it.  It  never 
occurred  to  me  at  that  time  to  put  the  question — What  is 
that  universal  process  common  to  these  aggregates  which 
do  not  become  more  heterogeneous  and  those  aggregates 
which  do  become  more  heterogeneous  ?  Had  I  put  this 
question  I  should  have  seen  that  the  formation  of  an 
aggregate  necessarily  precedes  any  changes  of  structure 
which  occur  in  the  aggregate;  and  that  therefore  inte- 
gration is  the  primary  process  and  differentiation  the 
secondary  process. 

The  impatience  I  felt  to  make  this  rectification  of  state- 
ment, which  gave  a  new  aspect  to  the  doctrine  and  freed 
it  from  a  now-manifest  error  in  the  described  order  of  the 


^T.  47.]    RE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  155 

phenomena^  caused  me  to  lose  no  time.  As  soon  as  the 
closing  number  of  the  Biology  was  issued,  I  commenced 
fche  agreeable  task;  and  such  times  as  I  could  command 
throughout  the  ensuing  spring,  summer,  and  early  autumn, 
were  devoted  to  it. 


Of  incidents  during  the  first  part  of  the  interval  thus 
occupied,  the  following  extracts  from  letters  to  Prof. 
Youmans  indicate  those  of  chief  interest.  On  March  11, 
I  wrote  to  him  thus  : — 

"You  were  saying  when  over  here,  that  you  thought  the  time  was  coming 
when  we  might  recommence  the  issue  of  the  serial  in  the  U.S.  I  doubt, 
however,  whether  it  would  be  worth  while.  Our  subscription  list  here  has 
just  been  gone  through  for  the  purpose  of  giving  a  peremptory  reminder  to 
those  in  arrear.  I  find  there  is  not  far  short  of  £200  due.  Possibly  the 
intimation  that  has  been  given,  that  no  further  numbers  will  be  sent  out  to 
those  whose  last  two  subscriptions  are  unpaid,  will  have  its  effect.  But 
I  foresee  that  if  things  go  on  as  they  have  been  doing,  it  will  be  needful  to 
give  up  the  issue  in  parts  by  the  time  the  Psychology  is  completed.  The 
trouble  and  loss  will  no  longer  be  compensated  by  the  gain." 

Until  this  extract  recalled  it,  the  fact  that  the  issue  by 
subscription  in  America  had  been  abandoned,  had  dis- 
appeared from  my  mind.  The  abandonment  had,  of 
course,  been  caused  by  the  difficulty  in  obtaining  pay- 
ments of  subscriptions.  A  letter  of  April  8,  contains 
the  passage  : — 

"  This  morning  I  am  none  the  better  for  a  large  amount  of  metaphysical 
discussion  last  night  with  Mill  and  Grote.  It  had  been  specially  arranged 
that  Grote  and  myself  were  to  dine  at  Mill's  together,  and  the  result  was  a 
very  interesting  evening,  though  one  which  was  a  serious  tax  upon  me,  as  you 
may  suppose.  .  .  . 

"Tomorrow  I  shall  commence  the  revision  of  First  Principles.  I  had 
intended  to  make  one  or  two  replies  to  criticisms  on  the  first  part,  but  have 
been  dissuaded  by  the  Leweses  from  doing  so.  There  will  only  be  one  or  two 
small  verbal  alterations." 

What  I  saw  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Grote  on  this  and  other 
such  occasions,  reminded  me  of  the  saying  ascribed  to 
Rogers — "  Ah  !  I  like  the  Grotes  very  much  ;  she  is  so 
gentlemanly    and    he    is    so   ladylike."     The    saying  was 


156  KE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.        [1867. 

unfair  to  Mr.  Grote,  however;  for  his  extreme  suavity 
did  not  prevent  his  manliness  from  being  manifest.  I 
liked  him  much,  but  I  did  not  care  about  her;  and  I  suppose 
this  fact  was  displayed  in  my  manner,  for  I  have  no  power 
of  disguising  my  feelings.  She  was  a  masculine  woman, 
alike  in  size,  aspect,  character,  and  behaviour;  and  I  greatly 
dislike  masculine  women.  Moreover,  she  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  a  good  deal  of  incense,  and  I,  little  given  to 
administer  it  in  any  case,  was  in  her  case  deterred  by  the 
tacit  claim ;  for  when  there  is  assumption  without  adequate 
achievement  to  justify  it,  I  always  feel  prompted  to  resent 
it.  Hence,  though  the  relation  continued  to  be  civil,  and 
with  Mr.  Grote  even  cordial,  the  acquaintanceship  did  not 
grow  into  friendship. 

Some  passages  written  ten  days  later  are  worth  quoting : — 
"  The  inclosure  contained  in  your  letter  was  a  considerable  surprise  to 
me.  I  had  anticipated  something  very  much  less.  What  a  wonderful 
steward  you  are.  I  never  dreamt,  a  few  years  ago,  of  any  such  results 
arising ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  you  it  is  clear  that  no  such  results  would 
ever  have  arisen.  .  .  . 

"Your  remarks  as  to  the  use  that  is  being  made  of  Mill's  name,  completely 
fulfil  the  prophecy  I  made  to  him.  I  told  him  that  I  regretted  to  see  the 
weight  of  his  authority  given  to  a  side  that  is  already,  to  say  the  least,  far 
too  strong ;  and  that  the  result  would  be  that  the  Classicists  would  appro- 
priate all  he  said  in  their  favour  and  ignore  all  he  said  against  them." 

The  last  of  these  two  paragraphs  refers  to  the  inaugural 
address,  then  recently  delivered  by  Mill  as  Lord  Rector  of 
St.  Andrews,  in  which  he  urged  the  claims  of  Classics, 
with  the  apparent  implication  that  they  were  in  danger  of 
being  over-ridden  by  Science.  Considering  that  Science 
was  but  just  beginning  to  raise  its  head,  and  to  obtain  a 
grudging  recognition  in  the  high  places  of  learning,  it 
seemed  to  me  that  the  note  of  alarm  was  scarcely  called  for. 

I  think  I  have  already  named  the  fact  that  the  Russians 
took  the  initiative  in  translating  my  books.  From  the 
following  paragraph  written  to  my  American  friend  on 
May   3,  it  appears  that  M.  Nicholas  Thieblin,   who   had 


Mr.  47.]    RE-CASTING  FIBST  PRINCIPLES.  157 

undertaken  the  dangerous  task  of  introducing  tliem  to  his 
countrymen^  nearly  got  into  serious  trouble  in  consequence. 
"  A  few  days  ago  I  had  a  letter  from  my  Russian  translator,  giving  me  the 
satisfactory  intelligence  that  the  prosecution  has  ended  in  smoke.  It  seems 
that  the  charge  of  the  minister  amounted  to  a  charge  of  high  treason  ;  and 
this  was  so  grave  that  the  procureur  of  the  court  of  justice  refused  to 
proceed  with  it ;  and,  one  charge  having  failed,  another  could  not  be  made. 
So  the  poor  fellow  is  out  of  danger ;  and  we  shall  have  no  occasion  to 
make  a  noise  about  it  in  America. " 

A  letter  of  June  7  contains  a  paragraph  which  it  seems 

desirable  here  to  reproduce. 

''  I  have  decided,  within  these  few  days,  to  use  a  specific  title  for  the  whole 
series  of  volumes  that  I  am  issuing.  Originally,  when  drawing  up  the 
programme,  I  contemplated  doing  so ;  and  was  very  nearly  using  the  title 
Deductive  Philosophy.  But  I  was  dissuaded,  and  finally  fell  back  upon  the 
indefinite  title — "A  System  of  Philosophy."  There  are  decided  evils, 
however,  in  the  absence  of  a  distinctive  name  ;  and  I  have  had  these  evils 
just  now  thrust  before  me  afresh.  .  .  .  Another  title,  therefore,  is  evidently 
extremely  desirable,  and  will,  I  think,  in  many  respects  yield  positive  as 
well  as  negative  advantages.  I  have  decided  upon  the  title — Synthetic 
Philosophy,  which,  on  the  whole,  seems  the  most  descriptive.  I  am  intending 
to  make  the  issue  of  this  second  edition  of  First  Principles  the  occasion  for 
introducing  it ;  and  propose  that  each  successive  volume  shall  bear  this 
general  title  on  its  back  in  addition  to  its  special  title.  " 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  June  26^  I  make 

more  especially  for  the  sake  of  its  second  paragraph. 

"  Mr.  Silsbee  dropped  in  upon  me  quite  unexpectedly  about  ten  days  ago. 
He  had  come  over  it  seems  in  pursuance  of  a  resolve  suddenly  taken, 
intending  to  spend  two  or  three  weeks  here  before  going  to  Paris.    He  is 

looking  very  well.     Mrs.  Youmans'  friend  Dr.  (I  forget  his  name) 

came  to  lunch  on  the  day  that  Silsbee  called;  so  that  I  had  quite  an 
American  party. 

"  We  are  about  to  give  a  public  breakfast  here  to  Garrison.  Bright  is  to 
be  in  the  chair,  and  the  address  is  to  be  moved  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  and 
seconded  by  Earl  Bussell  (probably)  and  also  by  John  Mill.  I  am  one  of 
the  Committee  of  arrangement." 

Had  it  not  been  for  these  records  in  letters,  I  should 
have  been  able  to  say  nothing  about  the  course  of  my  life 
during  this  part  of  1867. 

And   here,  indeed,  after  the   above  illustration,  I  may 


158  RE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.        [1867. 

fitly  say  a  few  words  respecting  the  biographical  materials 
to  be  hereafter  used. 

Unhappily  there  was  no  longer  any  home  correspon- 
dence. There  remained  only  the  correspondence  with 
friends.  Of  the  letters  to  Lott,  large  numbers  are  missing ; 
and  hence  the  fact  that  in  many  preceding  chapters  there 
are  no  quotations  from  them.  In  1867  the  series  of  them 
recommences^  and  they  here  and  there  furnish  passages  of 
interest.  The  letters  to  my  American  friend,  however, 
are  those  on  which  I  have  chiefly  to  depend  for  filling  in 
the  outlines  of  my  life  after  this  date.  Besides  recalling 
incidents  I  had  forgotten,  their  statements  give  precision 
to  incidents  I  remember;  and  they  furnish  a  tolerably 
full  account  of  everything  concerning  the  writing  and 
publication  of  my  books. 

In  1878  I  commenced  keeping  a  brief  diary.  This  tells 
me  where  I  was  and  what  I  was  doing  day  by  day;  and 
enables  me  to  give  to  the  narrative  during  eight  subsequent 
years,  definiteness  if  not  fulness.  Were  it  compiled  from 
recollections  only,  the  account  of  these  eight  years  would 
be  bald  if  not  vague ;  and  the  account  of  the  preceding 
seven  years  would  be  both  vague  and  bald. 

I  may  add  that  as,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  the  quota- 
tions made  will  be  from  letters  to  Prof.  Youmans,  it  seems 
needless  always  to  give  his  name.  Where  no  name  is 
mentioned  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  passage  quoted  was 
written  to  him. 

When  summer  was  just  passing  into  autumn  I  visited 
my  friend  Professor  Masson,  who  had  taken  a  house  for 
the  season  in  the  Vale  of  Yarrow,  and  had  asked  me  to 
spend  a  few  days  with  him.  They  were  days  of  sympathetic 
talk,  carried  on  during  walks  and  drives — talk  which 
pleasantly  and  beneficially  distracted  my  thoughts  from 
recent  domestic  troubles.  One  of  our  excursions  was  to 
St.  Mary's  Loch  at  the  head  of  the  vale,  and  to  "  Tibbie 


^T.  47.]    RE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  159 

Sttiels"  tavern:  a  place  associated  with  traditions  of 
notabilities  of  the  preceding  generation,  who  gathered 
there  for  fishing.  Our  out-door  converse  was  enlivened 
by  Masson's  stories — now  concerning  the  Border  raids 
associated  with  the  locality,  of  which  I  remember  nothing 
save  the  name  of  some  sanguinary  ruffian,  "  Dickie  of 
Dryhope "  ;  and  now  concerning  Dr.  Chalmers,  whom 
Masson  had  known  personally  and  greatly  admired.  A 
certain  emotional  glow  which  he  puts  into  his  narratives, 
always  gives  them  an  interest  beyond  that  which  they 
otherwise  have. 

After  "Yarrow  visited"  and  never  " re- visited/'  I  de- 
parted for  the  West,  or  rather,  for  the  North-west.  To  fill 
an  unoccupied  gap  in  my  holiday,  I  went  as  far  North  as 
Grlenelg;  and  after  a  week  there  spent  partly  in  fishing, 
partly  in  rambling,  partly  in  examining  the  Pictish  towers 
in  Glen  Beg,  I  made  my  way  to  Ardtornish  to  have  another 
of  those  interludes  in  my  life  which  have  formed  its  chief 
enjoyment.     Here  I  remained  from  August  20  to  Sept.  10. 

Beneficial  as  a  visit  to  Ardtornish  was  always  made  by 
its  out-door  and  in-door  pleasures,  a  certain  drawback 
resulted  from  its  relaxing  climate.  To  neutralize  this  I 
sometimes  on  my  way  South  stopped  for  a  time  at  a  bracing 
place.  On  one  occasion,  though  in  what  year  I  cannot 
remember,  I  thus  utilized  Llandudno ;  and  this  year  I 
betook  myself  to  Scarborough.  Of  incidents  during  my 
week's  stay  I  remember  but  one — a  ramble  along  the  coast 
to  a  bay  some  two  miles  or  so  to  the  South,  which  brought 
under  my  notice  an  extremely  exceptional  fact.  In  this 
bay  there  crops  out  on  the  beach  a  stratum  of  clay  of 
medium  plasticity ;  coherent  enough  for  large  lumps  of  it 
to  hold  together  when  tumbled  about  by  the  waves,  and 
yet  soft  enough  to  be  rounded  by  them.  The  bay  also 
contains  a  deposit  of  shingle,  over  which  the  soft  clay 
boulders  had  in  some  places  been  rolled.  And  here  came 
the  strange  result.     In   each    rounded    mass    of    clay  the 


160  EE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.        [1867. 

pebbles  bad  imbedded  tbemselves,  so  tbat  its  surface  was 
closely  studded  with  them  all  over.  Part  of  the  beach  was 
formed  of  sand;  and  it  seemed  quite  possible  that  one  of 
these  clay  boulders  with  its  superficial  layer  of  pebbles 
might  be  deposited  by  the  waves  on  some  quiet  part  of  the 
sandy  tract,  there  gradually  covered  over,  and  finally  left 
as  part  of  a  new  stratum.  What  an  incomprehensible 
phenomenon  would  it  in  such  case  be  for  the  geologist  of  the 
future  !  How  incredible  it  would  seem  that  such  a  forma- 
tion should  be  other  than  artificial ! 

This  reference  to  an  anomalous  process  observed  on  the 
sea-shore,  recalls  another  scarcely  less  anomalous,  which  I 
may  fitly  join  with  it.  Were  anyone  to  assert  that  Nature 
gives  mankind  lessons  in  describing  circles,  and  furnishes 
them  with  the  model  of  an  instrument  for  the  purpose,  all 
but  a  very  few  would  say  he  was  talking  nonsense.  Yet 
he  would  be  stating  a  literal  fact.  Probably  some  may 
conclude  that  I  refer  to  those  arcs  of  circles  occasionally 
scratched  by  loose  branches  of  trees  trained  against  walls, 
and  which  have  been  blown  backwards  and  forwards  by 
the  wind;  and  he  may  say  rightly  that  the  curves  thus 
formed — only  parts  of  circles,  and,  indeed,  only  approxi- 
mately circular — are  formed  under  artificial  conditions. 
But  I  have  in  mind  a  case  on  which  no  such  criticisms  can  be 
passed.  Where  sand-hills  are  formed  along  a  sea-shore,  there 
grows  in  them,  and  serves  to  hold  them  together,  a  species 
of  large  grass,  having  blades  that  are  very  long,  dry,  and 
stiff.  Roots  of  this  occur,  not  in  the  sand-hills  only,  but  here 
and  there  in  the  flat  interspaces.  Hard  and  wiry  though  its 
blades  are,  they  sometimes  get  broken — perhaps  bypassing 
animals.  Occasionally  may  be  seen  one  of  which  the 
broken  end,  longer  than  the  upright  part  to  which  it  is 
still  attached  by  some  fibres,  leans  in  an  inclined  position 
with  its  point  touching  the  sand.  This  broken  part  when 
blown  about  by  the  wind  describes  part  of  a  circle  on  the 
surface  of  the  sand.     When  the  wind  changes  it  describes 


^T.  47.]    EE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  161 

another  part  of  the  circle;  and  when  the  fibres  by  which 
it  is  held  are  few  and  lax,  other  changes  of  wind  make  it 
fill  in  the  remaining  arc.  Eventually  this  natural  pair  of 
compasses  may  be  seen  standing  in  the  middle  of  the  circle 
which  it  has  described. 

These  instances  show  how  difficult  it  is  to  find  in  all 
cases  a  test  by  which  to  distinguish  the  improbable  from 
the  impossible. 

From  Scarborough  I  departed  for  Gloucestershire,  and 
on  my  way  stopped  two  days  at  Stourbridge.  Why 
Stourbridge  ?  will  probably  be  asked  by  any  reader  who 
knows  how  uninviting  are  the  place  and  its  surroundings. 

My  purpose  was  to  make  a  genealogical  inquiry.  As 
was  said  at  the  outset,  my  maternal  grandmother  was  named 
Brettell  (originally  Breteuil) ;  and  there  were  two  questions 
respecting  her  mother  which  I  wished,  if  possible,  to  solve. 
When,  as  a  boy  of  14,  I  was  in  London  with  my  parents, 
I  accompanied  them  to  dine  with  two  old  gentlemen  named 
Shakespeare,  who  were  cousins  of  my  maternal  grandmother. 
Miss  Brettell,  a  cousin  of  my  mother,  had  once  told  me  that 
there  was  no  blood  relationship ;  by  which,  at  the  time, 
I  understood  her  of  course  to  mean  no  blood  relationship 
of  the  kind  which  one  might  have  a  motive  to  establish, 
were  it  possible.  But  I  now  think  she  meant  that  the 
cousinship  of  these  Shakespeares  had  arisen  not  from  the 
marriage  of  a  Mr.  Brettell  to  a  Miss  Shakespeare,  but  from 
a  marriage  of  a  Mr.  Shakespeare  to  a  Miss  Bretlell.  This 
was  the  point  which  I  wanted  to  determine;  and  lionce 
my  expedition  to  Wordsley  near  Stourbridge,  where  tliis 
great-grandfather  Brettell  had  lived.  I  could  not  make 
out  anything,  however.  The  name  Shakespeare  was  not 
infrequent  in  the  register,  and,  if  I  remember  rightly, 
occurred  on  sundry  grave-stones.  But  I  could  not  discover 
the  marriage  I  sought  for. 

Another   question   of   this   class  interested  me.     As  was 

H 


162  EE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINGIPLBS.        [1867. 

indicated  in  a  preliminary  chapter^  the  Brettella,  resident 
during  a  long  past  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Stourbridge, 
had  intermarried  with  certain  de  Henezels  (or  Henzies, 
as  they  were  eventually  called  in  England) — a  refugee 
family  which  came  over  from  Lorraine  at  the  time  of 
the  religious  persecutions :  having  in  earlier  times  migrated 
into  Lorraine  from  Bohemia :  possibly  being  Hussites.  I 
gathered  in  the  neighbourhood  that  there  had  been  two 
branches  of  the  Brettell  family,  a  richer  and  a  poorer ; 
and  I  was  curious  to  learn  with  which  of  these  branches 
it  was  that  the  Henzies  had  mingled :  whether  with  ours, 
which  I  believe  was  the  poorer,  or,  as  I  think  more 
probable,  with  the  richer.  I  failed  to  learn,  however.  I 
knew  only  that  my  great-grandmother's  Christian  name 
was  Sarah ;  that  her  marriage  with  Mr.  Brettell  must 
have  been  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century ;  and 
that  among  the  children  there  were  a  John,  a  Jeremiah, 
and  a  Jane.  Whether  it  was  that  these  data  were  insuffi- 
cient, or  whether  it  was  that  my  search  (limited  to  the 
registers  of  Wordsley  and  Old  Swinford)  was  not  wide 
enough,  I  cannot  say. 

The  failure  was  of  little  moment,  however.  Were  it 
proved  that  through  this  line  of  ancestry  there  has  de- 
scended to  me  a  trace  of  foreign  blood  distinguished  by 
such  pronounced  nonconformity,  the  fact  would  have 
negative  significance  rather  than  positive  significance. 
Save  certain  physical  traits,  I  inherit,  so  far  as  I  can 
perceive,  scarcely  anything  from  maternal  ancestry.  Every 
trait,  alike  intellectual  and  moral,  which  is  at  all  distinctive, 
is  clearly  traceable  to  my  father. 

After  the  two  days  which  I  spent  in  this  bootless  investi- 
gation, I  continued  my  journey  to  Standish ;  and,  at  the 
end  of  one  of  my  pleasant  sojourns  with  my  friends 
there,  returned  to  London. 

The   printing  of  the  re-cast  edition  of  First  Principles 


^T.  47.]    EE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPL:ES.  163 

had  been  going  on  pari  passH  with  the  revision,  and  wai 
now  nearly  complete :  the  tolerably  rapid  progress  made  by 
the  printers  having  been  due  to  the  circumstance  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  original  stereotype  plates  had,  with 
but  trifling  alterations,  been  made  to  serve  afresh. 

I  name  this  fact  as  introductory  to  some  remarks  con- 
cerning the  method  of  publication  I  had  adopted  and  have 
since  continued.  The  system  of  stereotyping  has  been 
objected  to  by  some  of  my  friends  as  entailing  an  obstacle 
to  the  making  of  corrections ;  and  it  doubtless  does  this  to 
a  serious  degree  if  the  corrections  are  numerous  and  diffused 
throughout  the  work.  But  it  entails  no  considerable  obstacle 
when  the  changes  are  limited  to  particular  parts,  or  are  in 
chief  measure  changes  of  arrangement.  In  this  second 
edition  of  First  Fi'ineiples,  probably  for  not  more  than 
one-third  of  the  work  had  new  plates  been  required ;  while 
the  plates  of  the  remaining  two-thirds  had  needed  only  to 
be  re-paged  and  to  have  the  sections  re-numbered. 

Stereotyping  of  course  involves  extra  loss  if  a  book  is 
unsuccessful ;  and  its  profitableness  implies  something  more 
than  temporary  success.  If  an  edition  consists  of  but  500 
copies  or  of  750  copies,  the  cost  of  setting  up  the  type  is 
the  chief  cost ;  and  even  when  the  number  comprised  in  the 
edition  is  1000,  payment  for  setting  up  the  type  amounts  to 
one-half  the  sum  laid  out.  If  the  type  has  been  distributed 
and  a  second  edition  is  called  for,  composition  has  to  be 
paid  for  a  second  time,  with  the  effect  of  greatly  diminish- 
ing the  net  profit.  But  if  stereotype  plates  have  been  made, 
(or  rather  stereo-moulds,  for  it  is  not  requisite  that  the 
plates  should  be  cast  until  they  are  actually  wanted)  there 
needs  no  second  composition  ;  and  there  has  to  be  borne  only 
the  outlay  for  the  stereotype  plates.  If  there  are  many 
editions  this  cost  of  the  stereotype  plates  practically  dis- 
appears; and  leaves  nothing  to  be  counted  as  cost  beyond 
the  paper  and  press-work. 

When,  some  ten  years  since,  I  gave  evidence  before  the 

11* 


164  RE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.        [1867. 

Copyriglit  Commission,  I  made  a  calculation  respecting  tlie 
returns  brought  by  my  books.  I  found  that,  after  making 
deductions  for  the  usual  trade-allowances,  the  publishers' 
commission,  and  the  expenses  of  paper  and  printing,  there 
remained  to  me  between  30  and  40  per  cent,  of  the  adver- 
tised price.  I  say  between  30  and  40  per  cent,  because, 
so  long  as  the  cost  of  composition  and  stereotyping 
entered  into  the  estimate,  the  per-centage  of  profit  was  kept 
down  to  something  like  the  lower  of  these  two  rates ;  but 
when,  after  many  editions,  this  element  of  the  cost  might 
be  considered  as  having  practically  disappeared,  the  rate  of 
profit  approached  the  higher  of  the  two.  That  is  to  say,  an 
edition  of  1000  copies  of  a  book  advertised  at  20  shillings, 
brought  to  me  nearly  £400  :  an  amount  which  the  cost  of 
advertising  might  reduce  to  something  like  £380.  No  such 
proportion  as  this  is,  I  believe,  ordinarily  obtained  by  an 
author  who  either  sells  the  copyright  of  an  edition  or  who 
publishes  on  the  system  of  half -profits — a  system  which,  on 
the  ordinary  publisher's  method  of  estimating  profits,  is 
apt  to  leave  the  author  with  a  very  small  sum ;  if  it  does 
not,  indeed,  vex  him  by  a  perpetually  retreating  mirage  of 
profits — a  promise  that  there  will  be  profits  on  the  next 
edition. 

Of  course  publication  by  commission  {i.e.  paying  the 
publisher  10  per  cent,  on  the  gross  returns  for  doing  the 
business)  accompanied,  as  in  my  own  case,  by  direct  dealings 
with  the  printer,  paper-maker,  and  binder,  entails  a  certain 
amount  of  trouble.  A  friend  of  mine,  who  over-estimates 
this  amount,  thanks  the  publisher  for  undertaking  it,  and 
thinks  he  is  not  overpaid  for  going  through  it.  That  he  is 
not  overpaid  when  he  takes  the  risk  as  well  as  the  trouble, 
is  true.  The  competition  of  trades  keeps  the  trade 
of  publishing  down  to  the  average  level  of  profitableness ; 
and  there  are  bankrupt  publishers  as  well  as  bankrupt 
traders  of  other  kinds.  But  where  the  publisher  does  not 
run  any  risk — where   the    author's   position  is  such  that 


Mt.  47.]     EE-CASTING  FIEST  PRINCIPLES.  165 

his  book  is  sure  to  more  than  pay  its  expenses;  then  the 
publisher  is  greatly  overpaid  for  the  work  he  does  on  either 
the  half -profit  system  or  the  system  of  copyright  purchase, 
if  he  gives  only  what  is  commonly  given.  Did  he  take  the 
course  I  do^  my  friend  would  find  that  the  few  hours  spent 
in  the  needful  letter- writing  and  interviews  were  paid  for  by 
returns  at  a  score  times  the  rate  that  any  hours  otherwise 
spent  were  paid  for  :  a  consideration  which  may  fitly  be 
entertained;  since,  high  as  his  aims  may  be,  the  author 
must  live  before  he  can  work. 

Of  course  the  penniless  author,  or  one  who,  though  he 
gains  much,  is  extravagant  and  lives  from  hand  to  mouth, 
cannot  avail  himself  of  this  more  remunerative  mode  of 
publishing.  He  cannot  wait  for  the  ultimate  advantages. 
He  has  to  accept  such  terms  as  the  capitalist  offers ;  and 
they  are  usually  hard  terms. 

Returning  from  these  digressive  remarks  suggested  by 
the  publication  of  this  re-cast  edition  of  First  Principles, 
which  took  place  in  November,  I  may  here  say  something 
concerning  the  work  itself;  or  rather — concerning  the 
general  doctrine  now  finally  embodied  in  it. 

Early  in  the  course  of  the  foregoing  narrative,  when 
briefly  describing  various  essays,  I  indicated  the  ways  in 
which  they  severally  displayed  approaches  to  the  conception 
eventually  reached;  and  before  giving,  in  its  original  crude 
form,  the  programme  of  the  system  in  which  it  was  proposed 
to  elaborate  this  conception,  I  described  the  general  course 
of  thought  by  which,  as  seen  in  these  steps,  the  conception 
had  been  arrived  at.  Here,  while  noting  the  further 
developments  which  took  place  subsequently,  it  will  be 
well  to  set  down  succinctly  all  the  successive  steps  with 
their  respective  dates.     They  run  as  follows  : — 

1850.  Recognized  the  truth  that  low  types  of  organisms 
and  low  types  of  societies,  are  alike  in  the  trait  that  each 
consists   of    many   like    parts    severally   performing   like 


166  RE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.        [1867. 

functions;  while  liigh  types  of  organisms  and  high  types 
of  societies,  are  alike  in  the  trait  that  each  consists  of 
many  unlike  parts  severally  performing  unlike  functions 
(Social  Statics,  pp.  451-3) :  the  tacit  implication  being  that  in 
these  cases  progress  is  from  the  uniform  to  the  multiform. 

1851.  Made  acquaintance  with  the  expression  of  Milne- 
Edwards,  "  the  physiological  division  of  labour/'  as 
applied  to  organic  life — an  expression  which,  suggesting 
the  thought  that  in  animals  as  in  societies  the  division  of 
labour  increases  as  organization  advances,  brought  into 
clearer  light  the  meaning  of  the  "  increasing  subdivision 
of  functions  "  on  which  I  had  commented  in  drawing  the 
above  parallel,  and  the  meaning  of  the  change  from 
uniformity  of  structure  to  multiformity  of  structure. 

1851-2.  A  disclosure  to  me,  and  reception  by  me,  of  von 
Baer's  formula ; — every  organism  in  the  course  of  its 
development  changes  from  homogeneity  of  structure  to 
heterogeneity  of  structure. 

1852.  In  treating  of  the  development  of  style  there  were 
expressed  simultaneously,  as  being  equivalents,  the  ideas 
that  progress  is  from  a  state  in  which  there  are  many  like 
parts  simply  aggregated,  to  a  state  in  which  there  are  many 
unlike  parts  mutually  dependent,  and  that  it  is  from 
homogeneity  to  heterogeneity. 

1853.  Alleged  that  in  the  course  of  social  development 
progress  is  from  unity  of  control  to  diversity  of  control — 
ceremonial,  ecclesiastical,  and  political ;  and  further,  that 
within  the  ceremonial  division  itself,  progress  is  similarly 
from  simplicity  to  complexity. 

1854.  (Spring.)  After  enunciating  the  principle  that 
Education  must  conform  itself  to  the  unfolding  mind,  it 
was  asserted  that  mental  development  is  from  the  simple 
to  the  complex  and  from  the  indefinite  to  the  definite  (a 
first  recognition  of  the  truth  that  increasing  definiteness 
is  a  trait  of  evolution) ;  and  concerning  scientific  develop- 
ment, which  is  determined  by  mental  development,  it  was 


iET.  47.]    RE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.  167 

asserted  tliat  Science  displays  an  increasing  integration, 
giving  it  greater  coherence,  at  tlie  same  time  that  by- 
increasing  divergence  and  re-divergence  it  acquires  higher 
complexity.  Though  in  these  cases  there  was  recognized 
the  fact  that  development  is  from  uniformity  to  multi- 
formity, or  from  homogeneity  to  heterogeneity,  these 
phrases  were  not  used. 

1854.  (Autumn.)  Systematically  dealt  with  as  having 
arisen  by  evolution,  Mind  at  large,  animal  and  human,  was 
now  described  as  advancing  from  the  homogeneous  to  the 
heterogeneous,  and  from  the  indefinite  to  the  definite, 
and  as  displaying  an  accompanying  integration  of 
its  components. 

1854-5.  These  successive  extensions  in  various  directions 
of  the  idea  that  progress  is  from  the  homogeneous  to  the 
heterogeneous,  now  suddenly  led  to  the  perception  that  this 
is  a  universal  trait  of  progress,  inorganic,  organic,  and 
super-organic ;  and  immediately,  in  answer  to  the  inquiry 
how  does  this  happen,  there  followed  the  conclusion  that 
the  multiplication  of  effects  is  everywhere  the  cause. 
[Eighteen  months  of  ill  health  here  intervened.] 

1857.  Directly  after  setting  forth  this  theory  in  the 
long-delayed  essay — ''  Progress  :  its  Law  and  Cause " 
came  the  perception  that  there  is  a  further  cause  of  this 
universal  transformation,  and,  indeed,  an  antecedent  cause 
— the  instability  of  the  homogeneous.  At  the  same  time 
it  was  pointed  out  that  individual  organisms  and  social 
organisms  are  alike  in  displaying  the  process  of  integration. 

1857-8.  During  the  last  days  of  the  one  year  or  the  first 
days  of  the  other,  came  the  thought  that,  since  the  con- 
tinuous metamorphosis  due  to  these  causes  is  displayed  by 
all  orders  of  existences,  it  ought  to  be  the  guiding  conception 
running  through  and  connecting  all  the  concrete  sciences. 
which  severally  treat  of  the  different  orders  of  existences  ; 
and  there  was  forthwith  sketched  out  a  series  of  volumes 


168  EE-CASTING  FIRST  PRINCIPLES.        [1867. 

in  whicli  a  presentation  of  them  as  thus  dealt  with  should 
constitute  a  system  of  philosophy. 

1858  (or  else  the  latter  part  of  1857).  There  was  now 
added  the  perception  that  increasing  heterogeneity  cannot 
go  on  without  limit,  but  must  end  with  the  arrival  at  a 
state  of  equilibrium ;  and  then,  or  soon  after,  came  the 
further  perception  that  since  the  state  of  equilibrium 
eventually  reached  cannot  last  for  ever,  there  must 
afterwards  come  a  process  of  dissolution;  and  that  thus 
Dissolution  is  everywhere  complementary  to  Evolution. 

1858-9.  Partly  during  the  preceding  intervals,  extending 
back  as  far  as  1854,  and  partly  during  the  interval  here 
dated,  arose  the  recognitions  of  certain  simpler  facts  of 
existence  and  action  which  must  in  all  cases  determine  the 
transformations  constituting  Evolution  and  Dissolution — the 
indestructibility  of  matter,  the  continuity  of  motion,  the 
rhythm  of  motion,  and  the  law  of  the  direction  of  motion. 
It  became  clear  that  all  the  changes  to  be  interpreted  are 
consequences  of  the  ceaseless  re-distribution  of  matter  and 
motion  everywhere  going  on ;  and  must  conform  to  those 
ultimate  physical  prmciples  which  regulate  this  re-dis- 
tribution. Finally,  it  was  concluded  that  the  assigned 
proximate  causes  of  Evolution,  as  well  as  these  physical 
principles  just  named,  are  all  to  be  affiliated  upon  the 
persistence  of  force;  and  that  the  interpretation  is  complete 
only  when  they  are  all  deduced  from  the  persistence 
of  force. 

1860-62.  The  conceptions  which  had  thus  been  reached, 
in  successive  stages,  and  finally  consolidated  as  just 
described,  were  now  elaborated  in  their  various  applica- 
tions, as  set  forth  in  First  Principles. 

1864.  Incidentally,  while  dealing  with  the  Classification 
of  the  Sciences,  and  asking  for  the  most  general  form 
under  which  all  orders  of  concrete  changes  may  be 
expressed,  there  was  suddenly  disclosed  the  truth  that 
integration   is   a  primary  process    and    differentiation   a 


Mt.  47.]    RE-CASTING  FIBST  PRINCIPLES,  169 

secondary  process  j  and  tliat  thus,  while  the  formation 
of  a  coherent  aggregate  is  the  nniversal  trait  of  Evolution, 
the  increase  of  heterogeneity,  necessarily  subsequent,  is  but 
an  almost  nniversal  trait; — the  one  being  unconditional 
and  the  other  conditional. 

1867.  Lastly,  it  was  perceived  that  to  the  statement  of 
the  mode  in  which  the  matter  composing  an  evolving 
aggregate  is  re-distributed,  should  be  joined  a  statement 
of  the  mode  in  which  its  motion  is  re-distributed ;  and  the 
formula  was  made  to  include  the  fact  that  along  with  the 
transformation  of  the  matter  from  a  state  of  indefinite, 
incoherent  homogeneity  to  a  state  of  definite,  coherent 
heterogeneity,  there  goes  a  parallel  transformation  of 
the  retained  motion. 

Thus  from  the  time  when  there  arose  the  initial  thought 
that  organisms  and  societies  are  alike  in  the  trait  that  low 
types  consist  of  like  parts  performing  like  functions,  while 
high  types  consist  of  unlike  parts  performing  unlike 
functions,  to  the  time  when  there  was  reached  this  fully- 
developed  conception  of  Evolution  at  large,  inorganic, 
organic,  and  super-organic,  there  elapsed  a  period  of 
17  years.  Of  the  successive  changes  which  went  on 
during  this  period,  the  earlier  were  incorporations  of 
additional  orders  of  phenomena,  and  thus  exhibited 
progressive  integration — the  primary  process  of  Evolution. 
Simultaneously,  sundry  of  them  displayed  advance  in 
heterogeneity;  since  they  brought  into  a  coherent  whole 
more  and  more  heterogeneous  masses  of  facts  —  the 
secondary  process  of  Evolution.  Others,  again,  by  raising 
the  conception  into  more  precise  agreement  with  the 
reality,  gave  increased  definiteness  to  it — a  further  trait 
of  Evolution.  And  thus,  as  we  saw  when  it  had  reached 
a  less  advanced  stage,  the  changes  passed  through  by 
the  conception  of  Evolution  themselves  conformed  to  the 
law  of  Evolution. 

I  was  about  to  add  that  the  final  phase  of  Evolution— 


170  KE-CASTING  FIBST  PRINCIPLES.        [1867. 

equilibration — was  now  illustrated  by  the  arrival  at  an 
equilibrium  between  tbe  conception  and  the  phenomena :  a 
balance  such  that  the  order  of  the  ideas  was  no  longer 
to  be  disturbed  by  the  order  of  the  facts.  But  this  is 
more  than  I  dare  to  say ;  seeing  that  I  had  before  more 
than  once  thought  that  the  two  were  in  complete  corre- 
spondence when  they  were  not. 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

AN  IMPRUDENCE  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES. 

1867.     ^t.  47. 

Up  to  this  time  I  had  not  felt  the  need  for  any  assistance 
beyond  that  yielded  by  an  ordinary  amanuensis.  Such 
materials  as  were  stored  up  in  memory,  joined  with  such 
further  materials  as  were  accessible  without  much  labour, 
served  me  while  writing  First  Principles.  Though  for 
writing  The  Principles  of  Biology  there  was  required  a  far 
larger  amount  of  information  than  I  possessed,  the  result 
proved  that  I  did  not  miscalculate  in  believing  that  I 
should  be  able  to  furnish  myself  with  such  detailed  facts 
as  were  requisite  for  the  setting  forth  of  general  con- 
ceptions. Nor  did  The  Principles  of  Psychology,  partly 
executed  and  now  to  be  completed,  cause  me  to  seek 
external  aid.  The  data  for  the  subjective  part,  which  was 
dealt  with  after  a  manner  unlike  that  commonly  adopted, 
were  lying  ready  internally ;  and  the  views  taken  of  the 
objective  part  were  so  little  akin  to  those  of  preceding 
psychologists,  that  no  extensive  study  of  their  writings  was 
necessary.  But  I  had  long  been  conscious  that  when  I 
came  to  treat  of  Sociology,  the  case  would  be  widely 
different.  There  would  be  required  an  immense  accumu- 
lation of  facts  so  classified  and  arranged  as  to  facilitate 
generalization.  I  saw,  too,  that  it  would  be  impossible  for 
me  to  get  through  the  amount  of  reading  demanded,  and 
that  it  would  be  needful  for  me  to  read  by  proxy,  and 
have  the  collected  materials  prepared  for  use.   Not,  indeed, 


172  AN  IMPRUDENCE  [1867. 

that  this  was  my  first  idea.  I  began  by  thinking  that  I  must 
have  a  secretary  who  would  read  to  me.  I  soon  became 
aware,  however,  that  the  requirements  could  not  be  thus 
met;  and  that  I  must  get  some  one  to  devote  himself, 
under  my  superintendence,  to  the  gathering  and  grouping 
of  data. 

There  was  no  time  to  be  lost.  The  elaboration  and 
completion  of  the  Psychology  I  expected  would  occupy  me 
some  two  or  three  years ;  and  unless,  by  the  end  of  that 
time  due  preparation  had  been  made,  I  foresaw  that  I 
should  suddenly  have  before  me  the  task  of  building 
without  bricks — or,  at  any  rate,  building  without  any 
adequate  supply  of  bricks.  While  staying  with  Professor 
Masson  in  the  Vale  of  Yarrow,  I  named  to  him  my  need, 
and  begged  him  to  let  me  know  if  he  heard  of  any  one 
likely  to  serve  my  purpose.  My  friend's  aid  soon  proved 
to  be  efficient.  Within  a  month,  while  still  at  Ardtomish, 
I  received  from  him  a  letter  recommending  a  young 
Scotchman,  Mr.  David  Duncan,  well  known  to  him  and  to 
Professor  Bain,  under  whom  he  had  studied.  Qualms  of 
conscience  had  obliged  him  to  relinquish  a  clerical  career, 
for  which  he  had  been  intended;  and  he  was  seeking 
something  to  do.  He  seemed  too  good  for  the  place,  and  I 
said  as  much  in  the  correspondence  which  ensued;  but 
notwithstanding  my  somewhat  dissuasive  representations, 
he  decided  to  accept,  and  joined  me  in  Town  not  long  after 
I  returned. 

Of  course  preliminary  discipline  was  needed  by  any  one 
who  undertook  the  work  I  wanted  done;  for  my  conception 
of  the  required  data  was  a  wider  one  than  he  would  be 
likely  to  frame  for  himself.  Indications  of  the  climate, 
contour,  soil,  and  minerals,  of  the  region  inhabited  by  each 
society  delineated,  seemed  to  me  needful.  Some  accounts 
of  the  Flora  and  Fauna,  in  so  far  as  they  affected  human 
life,    had    to    be    given.      And    the    characters    of    the 


^T.  47.]  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES.  173 

surrounding  tribes  or  nations  were  factors  "whicli  could 
not  be  overlooked.  The  characters  of  the  people,  indi- 
vidually considered,  had  also  to  be  described — their 
physical,  moral,  and  intellectual  traits.  Then,  besides 
the  political,  ecclesiastical,  industrial,  and  other  institu- 
tions of  the  society — besides  the  knowledge,  beliefs,  and 
sentiments,  the  language,  habits,  customs,  and  tastes  of 
its  members — there  had  to  be  noticed  their  clothing, 
food,  arts  of  life  &c.  Hence  it  was  necessary  that  Mr. 
Duncan  and  myself  should  go  through  some  books  of  travel 
together,  so  that  he  might  learn  to  recognize  everything 
relevant  to  Sociology. 

It  resulted  that  beyond  my  morning's  work,  continued, 
when  I  was  well,  from  10  till  1,  during  which  interval 
Mr.  Duncan  acted  as  amanuensis,  some  work  of  so  light  a 
kind  that  it  hardly  seemed  worthy  the  name,  now  filled  an 
hour  or  two  at  the  end  of  the  day.  Though  reading  had  the 
same  effect  on  me  as  dictating,  and  though  half  an  hour 
over  a  book  in  the  evening  made  my  ordinarily  bad  night 
decidedly  worse,  yet  I  hoped  that  I  might  listen  when  read 
to  without  suffering  from  it.  It  was  a  foolish  hope.  Many 
experiences  might  have  shown  me  that  the  effect  would 
be  mischievous. 

My  nervous  affection  had  been  from  the  beginning  of 
such  a  nature  that  disturbance  of  the  cerebral  circulation 
was  caused  by  whatever  necessitated  persistent  mental 
action,  no  matter  of  what  kind.  Often  when  at  a  loss  how 
to  pass  the  time,  I  have  been  asked — "Why  do  you  not 
read  a  novel  V  But  the  effect  of  reading  a  novel  is  just 
the  same  as  that  of  reading  a  grave  book.  When  at 
my  worst,  half  a  column  of  a  newspaper  as  surely  brings 
on  head-symptoms  as  do  two  or  three  pages  of  metaphysics. 
Whatever  involves  continued  attention  produces  the  effect. 
Dr.  Ransom,  who  had  suffered  from  a  similar  affection,  told 
me  that  he  brought  on  a  relapse  by  too  persistently 
watching,  through  the  microscope,  the  early  changes   in 


174  AN  IMPRUDENCE.  [1867. 

the  fertilised  ova  of  fishes;  and  he  further  told  me  that 
disorders  akin  to  his  own  and  to  mine,  were  common 
in  Nottingham  among  the  lace-menders — a  class  of 
women  who,  all  day  long,  have  the  attention  strained  in 
looking  for,  and  rectifying,  small  flaws  which  have  been 
left  by  the  lace-making  machines.  Hence  I  might  have 
known  that  continuous  attention  to  a  reader  would  have 
nearly  the  same  result  as  continuous  reading.  This 
presently  proved  to  be  the  case.  My  restless  nights  were 
very  soon  made  more  restless.  Without  thinking  what 
I  was  doing  I  nevertheless  persevered;  and  by  and  bye 
found  that  I  had  brought  about  one  of  my  serious  relapses. 
I  have  nothing  to  remind  me  of  the  date,  but  I  imagine 
that  this  disaster  occurred  early  in  December. 

In  a  previous  chapter  I  named  the  fact  that  I  had 
recourse  to  morphia  when  my  nights  became  much  worse 
than  usual;  and  doubtless  on  this  occasion  I  sought  thus 
to  bring  on  again  the  periodicity  of  sleep,  which,  once 
broken  through  for  some  time,  had  to  be  re-established  by 
artificial  means. 

And  here  it  occurs  to  me  to  describe,  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  have  not  experienced  them,  some  of  the 
effects  of  morphia  on  dreams.  In  me  it  gives  extreme 
coherence  to  the  ideas  evolved.  Unhke  the  actions  and 
events  of  an  ordinary  dream,  which  are  linked  on  by 
accidental  suggestions  in  such  wise  that  they  form  a 
rambling  series,  the  actions  and  events  of  a  morphia- 
dream  are  almost  like  those  of  the  waking  state,  in  their 
rationahty  and  orderly  connexion.  For  a  long  time  the 
thoughts  which  arise  bear  a  logical  relation  to  some  primary 
thought,  and  the  actions  performed  continue  to  be  in 
pursuance  of  some  original  intention.  Occasionally  this 
trait  was  so  striking  that  I  next  morning  recorded  the 
dream  illustrating  it.  Here  is  an  account  of  one. 
•'  Another  peculiarity  that  has  occasionally  struck  me  is  the  continual  occur- 


.Et.  47.]  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES.  175 

renoe  of  events  or  thoughts  which,  though  coherent,  are  unexpected  and  do 
not  seem  accounted  for  by  any  simple  process  of  association.  Last  night,  for 
example,  I  happened  just  to  awake  at  a  moment  when  I  was  able  to  lay  hold 
of  a  portion  of  a  di-eam  presenting  these  peculiarities.  I  imagined  that  I  was 
reading  the  review  of  some  book  which  the  reviewer  brought  to  a  close  by 
condemning  the  extremely  strong  language  used  by  the  writer,  and  then 
proceeded  to  give  an  example  of  it.  The  example  commenced  thus  : — 
"  'Has  this  cur  the  slightest  tender-heartedness — is  he  even  hearted 
at  all?' 

"Immediately  on  reading  this  I  was  startled  by  the  oddity  of  the  word 
'  hearted, '  thinking  to  myself — What  made  the  man  use  such  a  word  ?  I 
supposed  he  meant  to  write,  '  Has  he  any  heart  ?'  This  was  a  parenthetical 
thought,  and  I  remember  that  the  paragraph  went  on  to  a  considerable 
length ;  and  then  that  the  reviewer  wound  up  by  two  or  three  lines,  in 
which  he  made  a  quite  unexpected  parallel,  of  which,  though  unexpected, 
I  soon  saw  the  meaning. 

' '  In  these  cases  it  seems  as  though  there  were  going  on,  quite  apart  from  the 
consciousness  which  seemed  to  constitute  myself,  some  process  of  elaborating 
coherent  thoughts — as  though  one  part  of  myself  was  an  independent 
originator  over  whose  sayings  and  doings  I  had  no  control,  and  which  were 
nevertheless  in  great  measure  consistent;  while  the  other  part  of  myself 
was  a  passive  spectator  or  listener,  quite  unprepared  for  many  of  the  things 
that  the  first  part  said,  and  which  were  nevertheless,  though  unexpected, 
not  illogical." 

When  thinking  them  over  I  have  put  different  interpre- 
tations on  these  phenomena.  At  first  I  ascribed  them 
to  a  double  consciousness.  But  as  in  the  word  tender- 
heartedness there  occurs  the  fragment  "  hearted ;"  and 
as  in  such  instances  as  "  wrongheadedness "  the  word 
"  headed/'  included  as  a  component  of  the  compound  word, 
is  also  used  by  itself ;  it  seemed  possible  that  by  association 
in  a  consciousness  active  enough  to  be  influenced  by  it,  but 
not  active  enough  to  perceive  in  time  that  the  word  sugges- 
ted by  analogy  is  not  used^  the  word  "  hearted  "  might  be 
evolved;  and  that  then  its  unfamiliarity  might  suddenly 
arouse  attention  to  its  strangeness.  Afterwards,  however, 
I  reverted  to  the  hypothesis  of  a  double  consciousness 
arising  from  independent  action  of  the  two  hemispheres 
of  the  brain — independent  action  due  to  a  lack  of  that 
complete  co-ordination  which  exists  during  the  waking  state. 

In  ordinary  dreams,  thoughts  which  seem  valuable  or 


176  AN  IMPRUDENCE.  [1867. 

witty,  turn  out  on  awaking  to  be  nonsensical  or  inane; 
but  in  morphia-dreams  there  sometimes  arise  thoughts 
which  would  not  discredit  the  waking  state.  I  have  made 
a  memorandum  of  one  which  occurred  in  an  imaginary 
circle  of  friends,  one  of  whom,  referring  to  a  recently- 
published  book,  said — "Oh,  have  you  seen  the  Rev.  Mr. 
So-and-so's  story  called  '  The  Lily '  :  it  is  the  most 
beautiful  moral  essay  I  ever  read."  Whereupon,  in  my 
dream,  I  remarked — "Ah,  I  see :  a  sermon  that  'cometh  up 
as  a  flower'."  This  happened  shortly  after  the  publication 
of  Miss  Broughton's  first  novel ;  and  evidently  the  title  of 
it  partially  determined  the  course  which  my  dream  took. 

It  is  an  interesting  physiological  inquiry,  what  pe- 
culiar state  of  the  circulation  it  is  which  combines  the 
implied  activity  of  brain  with  closure  of  the  senses  to 
external  impressions. 

Various  efforts  were  now  made  to  restore  my  consti- 
tutional equilibrium.  In  the  latter  part  of  December  I 
went  to  Malvern  for  some  10  days — not  to  undergo 
hydropathic  treatment,  though  I  went  to  a  hydropathic 
establishment.  No  great  advantage  resulted.  Then,  dated 
London,  2nd  January,  1868,  a  letter  to  Youmans  says  : — 

"  To-morrow  I  am  going  off  into  Glostershire,  where,  if  the  frost  which  has 
now  set  in,  lasts,  I  hope  to  get  some  skating ;  and  I  count  upon  this  for 
doing  a  great  deal  towards  setting  me  right  again." 
Shortly    after   I   reverted   to  another   form    of   exercise, 
previously  found  beneficial.    In  reply  to  an  invitation  from 

Lott  written  on  January  25  : — 

"When  I  returned  from  Standish  I  was  considerably  better,  and  recom- 
menced work ;  and,  though  I  have  since  been  worse  again,  still  I  do  not 
think  that  Derby  life,  even  though  joined  with  the  pleasant  circle  of  No.  7, 
would  have  been  quite  the  thirg  for  me. 

"  I  have  resorted  to  my  old  remedy  of  playing  rackets,  and  have  to-day 
derived  considerable  benefit.  By  continuing  this,  and  doing  a  little  work, 
I  hope  to  restore  again  my  easily  disturbed  balance." 

This  expectation  was  disappointed,  however.  The  state, 
brought  on  in  December  and  continued  through  January, 


JiT.  47.]  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES.  177 

persisted  till  the  end  of  February;  and  it  then  seemed 
needful  to  make  a  thorough  change  in  my  life.  A  letter  to 
Youmans,  dated  29  Feb.,  says  : — 

"  After  losing  a  great  deal  of  time  daring  the  last  two  months,  hoping  to 
get  into  working  order  by  using  half-measures,  I  have  been  at  length 
compelled  to  take  a  more  decisive  course.  I  start  to-morrow  morning  for 
Italy,  where  I  propose  to  spend  some  two  months — expecting  that  by  the  end 
of  April,  by  the  combined  effects  of  desisting  from  all  excitements,  intellectual 
and  social,  and  getting  the  exhilaration  due  to  so  much  novelty,  I  shall 
regain  my  ordinary  state." 

An  incident  of  moment  to  me,  affecting  greatly  my 
daily  life  throughout  future  years,  occurred  just  before 
I  started.  I  was  elected  into  the  Athenseum  Club  by  the 
Committee.  There  are  two  modes  of  election  :  the  one  by 
ballot,  and  the  other  under  what  is  known  to  the  members 
as  Rule  2 — a  rule  allowing  the  Committee  to  select  from 
the  list  of  candidates  nine  annually  who  have  special 
claims  :  the  purpose  being  to  maintain  the  original 
character  of  the  Club,  which,  at  the  outset,  brought 
together  the  chief  representatives  of  Science,  Literature, 
and  Art. 


12 


CHAPTER  XLVl. 
A  TOUR  IN  ITALY. 

1868.     ^t.  47. 

Beyond  the  upiial  interests  whicli  attracted  me  to  Italy 
as  a  country  in  whicli  to  pass  an  interval  of  relaxation^  there 
was  an  unusual  interest :  Vesuvius  was  in  eruption.  This 
fact  determined  not  only  my  choice  of  Italy  as  a  recruiting 
ground^  but  also  the  route  I  chose.  Already  the  emission 
of  lava  and  vomiting  of  molten  fragments  had  been  going 
on  for  a  month  or  more ;  and  I  feared  the  eruption  might 
cease  before  I  reached  the  place  if  I  delayed  on  the  journey. 
I  therefore  went  to  Marseilles  and  thence  took  steamer 
for  Naples. 

This  was  during  the  first  days  of  March ;  and  early  in 
the  morning  of  the  6th^  I  think  it  was,  the  passengers 
were,  in  response  to  a  request  made  over  night,  called  on 
deck  to  see  the  dull  red  glow  of  the  long  lava-stream, 
then  visible  at  a  distance  of  some  20  miles,  amid  the 
scarcely  decreased  darkness.  The  sight  was  impressive; 
and  it  was  strange  to  remember  it  afterwards  on  observing 
that  by  day  the  lava-stream  appeared  to  emit  no  light 
at  all. 

My  first  day  at  Naples,  where  we  arrived  before  the 
bustle  of  the  streets  had  commenced,  was  passed  in  an 
uninteresting  way — lying  on  the  bed  in  a  state  of 
exhaustion.  I  had  been  rendered  fit  for  nothing,  partly 
by  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  journey,  and  partly  by  the 
bad    feeding    on    board    the    vessel,    belonging    to    the 


^T.  47.]  A  TOUR  m  ITALY.  179 

Messageries  Imperiales,  wliicli  brought  us — a  yessel  whicli, 
not  subject  as  others  of  its  class  are  to  competition  with 
the  Peninsula  and  Oriental  line,  had  a  very  bad  cuisine  : 
making  me,  among  other  things,  better  acquainted  with 
the  large  Mediterranean  fish  called  tunny  than  I  wished 
to  be.  Only  in  the  evening  did  I  feel  sufficiently  recruited 
to  walk  out,  and  then  I  caught  a  cold  which  remained  with 
me  during  the  whole  of  my  stay  in  Italy. 

How  careless  people  are  in  their  statements  about 
climate !  Thinking  that  I  was  going  where  mildness 
reigned,  I  had  hesitated  about  taking  my  Inverness  cape. 
It  was  fortunate  that  I  did  take  it.  During  the  five  weeks 
I  passed  in  Italy  I  needed  it  daily,  sometimes  with  a 
spring  overcoat  underneath ;  and  at  Florence,  during  the 
first  week  in  April,  I  saw  many  others  similarly  clad.  But 
it  was  an  exceptional  winter,  I  was  told.  Yes,  it  seems 
always  to  be  an  exceptional  winter.  Friends  with  whom 
I  afterwards  compared  notes  had  the  same  weather,  and 
heard  the  same  excuse.  I  may  add  that  my  experiences 
elsewhere  in  later  years  have  been  no  less  disappointing : 
so  much  so,  indeed,  that  I  have  come  to  doubt  whether  a 
model  climate  exists  anywhere. 

Twice  during  my  week  in  Naples  I  was  led  to  endanger 
my  life  by  that  trait  with  which,  as  I  have  said  at  the 
outset,  my  father  reproached  me  when  a  boy — the  tendency 
to  become  for  the  moment  possessed  by  a  single  idea,  or, 
as  he  phrased  it,  to  think  of  only  one  thing  at  a  time. 

The  first  of  these  occasions  was  on  the  day  after  my 
arrival.  The  Ho  tel  des  Etrangers,  at  which  I  was  staying, 
is  at  one  angle  of  a  triangular  space  to  which  the  shore  of 
the  bay  forms  a  rude  hypothenuse.  In  the  afternoon  I 
was  walking  across  this  space  to  the  hotel,  unaware  that 
anyone  was  near  me,  when  my  train  of  thought  was  broken 
by  a  sudden  relief  from  a  slight  drag  on  my  shoulder, 
caused  by  an  opera-glass  in  my  coat-pocket.   I  turned  round 


180  A  TOUR  IN  ITALY.  [1868. 

and  a  young  fellow,  some  two  or  three  and  twenty  I  should 
think,  rushed  away  and  dropped  the  opera-glass  :  probably 
thinking  that  I  should  pick  it  up  and  be  content  with 
having  regained  it.  He  was  mistaken,  however.  I  gave 
chase.  Either  he  must  have  been  a  bad  runner,  or  I  must 
have  still  retained  a  good  deal  of  that  fleetness  which 
distinguished  me  as  a  boy.  Perceiving  that  his  course 
would  presently  bring  him  to  the  Chi  a  j  a,  where  there  were 
many  persons  about,  he  apparently  lost  his  head,  and  I 
came  up  and  seized  him  by  the  collar.  He  went  on  his 
knees,  kissed  my  hand,  and  begged  to  be  let  off ;  and  some 
working-class  women  who  quickly  came  up  interceded  for 
him.  But  I  disregarded  what  I  suppose  were  entreaties; 
and  when,  the  moment  after,  two  young  Leghornese  gentle- 
men, who  had  witnessed  the  pursuit,  appeared  on  the  scene, 
and  volunteered  to  accompany  me  to  give  evidence,  we 
moved  away  into  the  city  :  my  captive  submitting  un- 
resistingly. Meeting  after  a  time  one  of  the  police,  I 
delivered  him  over,  and,  the  crowd  which  accompanied  us 
having  dispersed,  we  went  with  the  policeman  and  his 
charge  to  the  station.  There  the  man  was  recognized  as 
an  audacious  thief  who  had  been  known  to  pick  the 
pockets  of  the  police  !  Speaking,  as  I  did,  no  Italian,  and 
but  bad  French,  the  taking  down  of  my  statement  was  a 
long  business.  When  at  length  the  deposition  had  been 
corrected  and  signed  by  me,  I  was  both  astonished  and 
amused  at  being  asked  what  punishment  I  should  like 
inflicted.  The  reply  of  course  was  that  I  was  concerned 
only  to  deliver  over  the  culprit  into  their  hands :  leaving 
them  to  decide  on  the  punishment.  And  thus  the 
matter  ended. 

Next  day,  when  I  heard  how  frequently  people  were 
stabbed  on  the  Chiaja,  I  became  conscious  of  the  risk  I  had 
been  running.  Most  likely,  had  the  young  fellow  had  a 
knife  about  him,  I  should  have  suffered,  perhaps  fatally, 
for  my  imprudence.     Had  I  not  been  so  exclusively  pos- 


Mt.H.]  a  tour  in   ITALY.  181 

sessed  by  the  thouglit  of  bringing  Mm  to  justice,  I  should 
have  been  content  with  regaining  my  opera-glass. 

The  other  incident  to  which  I  have  referred  as  illustrat- 
ing the  trait  named,  or  rather,  perhaps,  in  this  case  the 
trait  of  rashness,  which  I  begin  to  think  is  somewhat 
characteristic  of  me,  occurred  a  few  days  later,  when 
exploring  the  area  of  the  eruption  on  Vesuvius. 

For  several  days  during  which  I  was  recruiting,  I  had 
been  content  to  witness  the  doings  of  the  mountain  as 
visible  from  Naples  :  observing  bursts  of  lava-spray,  dark 
by  day  and  bright  by  night,  and  collecting  from  my 
window-sill  some  of  the  smaller  particles  of  this  spray, 
about  the  size  of  coarse  gunpowder.*  During  these  days, 
conversation  round  the  table-d'hote  had  enlightened  me 
respecting  the  impositions  practised  on  all  who  ascended. 
I  learnt  that  at  the  place  where  the  road  up  to  the 
Observatory  diverges  from  the  high  road  running  round 
the  base  of  the  mountain — Resina  I  think  it  was — there 
stood  guides  and  ponies,  and  that  it  was  imperative  to  take 
one  of  each  and  pay  a  prescribed  high  price.  I  am 
intolerant   of   coercion  in  such   matters,  and    am  always 

*  I  use  the  phrase  lava- spray  advisedly.  It  is  clear  that  in  the  lower 
part  of  the  vast  column  of  molten  matter  filling  the  crater  of  a  volcano, 
there  is  contained  a  large  amount  of  matter  which,  at  ordinary  temperatures 
and  pressures,  would  be  gaseous  :  probably  carbonic  acid  and  water,  which, 
notwithstanding  the  high  temperature,  are,  by  the  immense  superincumbent 
weight,  kept  either  in  the  liquid  state  or  at  the  "  critical  point."  As  the  lower 
portions  of  the  column  are  thrust  upwards,  and  the  pressure  these  matters 
are  subject  to  diminishes,  they  assume  the  gaseous  state  :  forming  smaU 
bubbles  distributed  through  the  molten  mass.  At  each  stage  of  the  ascent 
these  small  bubbles  expand  and  aggregate :  by  and  by  making  large  ones, 
which  increase  in  ascending  power  as  in  size.  At  length,  on  approaching  the 
top  of  the  molten  column,  there  have  resulted  vast  ones  of  many  feet  in 
diameter — chambers  filled  with  gases  which,  though  no  longer  of  such  high 
tension,  are  still  of  a  tension  like  that  of  the  gunpowder-gases  in  a  cannon. 
And  then  at  some  point,  perhaps  20  or  30  feet  below  the  top  of  the  molten 
column,  each  gigantic  bubble  as  it  bursts  propels  the  superincumbent  molten 
lava  in  portions  of  all  sizes  high  into  the  air. 


182  A  TOUR  IN   ITALY.  [1868. 

prompted  to  defeat  its  aims,  if  possible.  A  clergyman, 
some  ten  years  my  senior,  who  had  been  a  fellow-passenger 
from  Marseilles,  had  the  like  feeling;  and  we  consulted 
how  to  give  effect  to  it.  On  examining  the  map,  we  found 
that  by  diverging  to  the  left  from  the  high  road  some  mile 
or  two  short  of  Resina,  we  might  cut  into  the  road  which 
leads  up  to  the  Observatory.  Taking  a  vehicle  as  far  as 
the  bye-way  selected,  we  pursued  this  for  some  distance 
until,  to  our  dismay,  it  trended  off  towards  the  East.  But 
a  small  gift  to  some  people  in  a  vineyard,  purchased  the 
permission  to  cross  it,  as  well  as  directions  how  to  proceed, 
and  we  presently  found  ourselves  where  we  intended.  Free 
from  the  noises  of  the  usual  cavalcades,  we  pursued  our 
ascent ;  now  pausing  to  contemplate  the  Bay  of  Naples 
below  us,  and  now  gathering  flowers  not  seen  before.  Our 
arrival  at  the  place  where  a  branch  lava-stream  had,  I 
suppose  some  weeks  before,  obstructed  the  path,  caused, 
among  the  guides  and  others  assembled  there,  much 
astonishment.  How  we  came  unattended  was  a  mystery 
to  them. 

Our  purpose  was,  of  course,  to  reach  the  place  at  which 
the  lava-stream  emerged  from  the  base  of  the  cone,  about 
half  a  mile  off :  the  intervening  space  being  covered  with 
cooling  portions  of  the  stream,  which  had  now  taken  this 
course  and  now  that.  The  guides  around  proffered  their 
services;  but  we  declined  them,  and  set  out  over  the  black 
rugged  tract  to  be  traversed.  After  some  fifty  or  hundred 
yards,  finding  proof  that  the  hardened  lava  was  hotter 
than  he  anticipated,  my  companion  turned  back.  I  saw  no 
danger,  however,  and  as  the  air,  though  disagreeably  warm, 
was  not  sulphurous,  I  went  on  alone ;  thinking  it  would 
be  time  to  pause  when  some  risk  was  before  me.  Half 
walking,  half  climbing,  I  slowly  advanced  ;  now  passing 
easily  along  a  tolerably  solid  and  smooth  surface,  now  with 
difficulty  surmounting  gnarled  masses  of  lava  contorted 
while  moving  and  semi-solid,  now  scrambling  over  heaps  of 


^T.  47.]  A  TOUR  IN  ITALY.  183 

scoria,  and  now  having  to  cross  certain  long  strange- 
looking  trenches,  the  sides  of  which  consisted  of  loose 
fragments  of  vesicular  lava  torn  into  pieces,  looking  like  a 
mineral  ''pulled-bread."  Meanwhile  Vesuvius  was  thunder- 
ing above  me,  sending  high  into  the  air  at  each  explosion 
a  cloud  of  fragments  of  all  sizes;  some  of  them  falling  back 
into  the  crater,  while  most  fell  on  the  sides  of  the  cone — 
too  far  from  me,  however,  to  be  a  source  of  danger. 
Presently,  as  I  diminished  my  distance  from  the  source  of 
the  lava-stream,  and  the  blurring  effect  of  the  hot  and 
wavy  air  did  not  so  much  obscure  distant  objects,  I  dis- 
cerned a  solitary  figure  near  the  place  towards  which  I  was 
moving;  and  after  a  time  he  discerned  me.  As  I  approached 
he  left  his  stand  at  which,  as  I  found,  he  had  a  supply  of 
refreshments,  and  over  the  last  thirty  or  forty  yards 
showed  me  the  way.  While  doing  this  he  drew  me  aside 
and  pointed  out  a  place  where,  through  a  hole  broken  in  the 
black  smooth  surface  of  a  seemingly  cold  lava-stream,  I 
looked  down  into  a  red-hot  tunnel,  of  some  six  or  eight  feet 
in  diameter.  Several  times  in  the  course  of  my  scrambling 
walk  the  sound  of  my  footsteps  had  suggested  hoUowness 
below;  and  now  the  cause  was  manifest.  I  had  passed  over 
some  of  these  tunnels.  Further,  it  was  manifest  that  the 
trenches  I  had  crossed  had  resulted  from  the  subsidence  of 
the  scoria  overlying  some  of  them.  Thirty  or  forty  paces 
more  now  brought  me  to  the  object  of  my  dangerous  expe- 
dition. It  was  not,  after  all,  particularly  imposing. 
The  stream  of  molten  matter,  issuing  from  a  low  cavern - 
mouth  at  the  base  of  the  cone,  was,  I  should  think,  not 
more  than  ten  feet  wide,  and  moved  at  from  one  to  two 
miles  per  hour  :  its  surface  being  so  covered  with  chilled 
fragments  of  lava,  as  in  great  measure  to  prevent  the 
emission  of  light.  The  heat,  however,  was  great — so  great 
that  approach  was  diflicult.  I  wished  to  burn  the  end  of 
my  alpenstock  in  the  lava-stream;  but,  finding  that  my 
eyes  strongly  resented  the  endeavour  to  go  near  enough,  I 


184  A   TOUR  IN  ITALY.  [1868. 

got  the  man  to  burn  it.  This  he  did  by  crawling  and 
crouching  behind  blocks  of  cooled  lava  till  he  was 
within  reach. 

And  now  there  came  an  extremely  absurd  act.  After 
paying  the  man  for  his  trouble,  and  after  duly  contem- 
plating the  sights  around,  from  time  to  time  looking 
upwards  to  watch  another  burst  from  the  cone,  I  commenced 
my  return.  The  man  proposed  to  guide  me  along  the  usual 
route,  which  traversed  the  chaotic  tract  I  have  described, 
higher  up  the  valley.  I  declined  his  guidance,  however, 
and  went  back  by  the  way  I  came.  That  I  should  have 
done  so  is  a  matter  of  astonishment  to  me.  Though  I 
had  previously  passed  safely  over  treacherous  places,  it  by 
no  means  followed  that  on  retracing  my  steps  one  of  these 
hidden  tunnels,  crossed  at  a  somewhat  different  point, 
would  not  give  way.  Had  one  done  so,  then,  though  no 
longer  red-hot  internally,  it  would,  by  its  retained  heat, 
have  caused  death  after  terrible  torture.  How  to  account 
for  the  judicial  blindness  thus  displayed,  I  do  not  know ; 
unless  by  regarding  it  as  an  extreme  instance  of  the 
tendency  which  I  perceive  in  myself  to  be  enslaved  by  a 
plan  once  formed — a  tendency,  in  this  case  co-operating 
with  that  above  illustrated,  to  become  for  a  time  possessed 
by  one  thought  to  the  exclusion  of  others. 

My  clerical  friend  had  waited  for  me.  We  descended 
unharmed,  and  returned  as  the  dusk  came  on  :  looking 
over  our  shoulders  occasionally  to  watch  the  bursts  of  lava- 
spray,  which,  as  the  day-light  decreased,  became  gradually 
more  luminous. 

To  the  things  of  interest  in  and  around  Naples  I  did  but 
scant  justice.  Of  course  I  saw  the  Museum,  and  I  ascended 
to  a  monastery  standing  high  up  behind  the  city — I  forget 
for  what,  unless  it  was  for  the  view.  After  that  came  an 
excursion  to  Pompeii. 

Nothing  which  I  saw  in  Italy  impressed  me  so  much  as 


iET.  47.]  A  TOUR  IN  ITALY.  185 

this  dead  town.  I  take  but  little  interest  in  what  are 
called  histories,  but  am  interested  only  in  Sociology,  which 
stands  related  to  these  so-called  histories  much  as  a  vast 
building  stands  related  to  the  heaps  of  stones  and  bricks 
around  it.  Here,  however,  the  life  of  two  thousand  years 
ago  was  so  vividly  expressed  in  the  objects  on  all  sides,  and 
in  the  marks  of  their  daily  use  visible  on  them,  that  they 
aroused  sentiments  such  as  no  written  record  had  ever  done. 
The  steps  of  the  public  buildings  worn  away  by  the  passage 
of  countless  feet;  the  tracks  of  wheels  deeply  cut  into  the 
flag-stones  with  which  the  streets  were  paved ;  the  shops 
with  their  fronts  open  from  side  to  side  like  those  still 
extant  at  Naples;  and  the  household  utensils  of  all  kinds 
found  everywhere ;  made  one  easily  see  in  imagination  the 
activities  once  carried  on.  While  here  and  there  traces 
of  prevalent  usages  suggested  the  characters  of  those  who 
once  thronged  the  streets. 

One  of  the  things  which  interested  me  was  the  structure 
of  the  Roman  house ;  and  this  for  reasons  deeper  than  the 
architectural  and  aesthetic.  Its  relations  to  primitive  types 
of  habitations  and  to  modern  types,  serving  to  link  the  two, 
make  it  a  good  example  of  super-organic  evolution.  From 
the  outset  of  social  life,  defence  against  enemies  has  been 
a  predominant  thought — may  we  not  say  the  predominant 
thought  ?  Hence  when,  passing  over  earlier  stages,  we 
come  to  the  stage  in  which  there  is  a  clustering  of  habita- 
tions, or  of  separate  huts  forming  one  habitation,  the 
general  method  is  to  arrange  them  round  a  small  area, 
presenting  their  backs  to  the  outer  world  while  their  doors 
open  upon  the  inner  space,  which  has  but  a  single  entrance. 
In  a  South  African  kraal  the  chambers  of  a  chief's  wives, 
the  store-houses,  and  so  forth,  are  thus  arranged;  as  are 
also  the  vehicles  of  a  traveller  or  a  migrating  Boer.  A 
more  complex  form  of  this  arrangement  was  hit  upon  by 
the  Pueblos  of  North  Mexico,  who  thus  shut  out  invadiiicj 
tribes  less  civilized  than  themselves.  The  prevalent  house 
throughout  the  East  down  to  our  own  day,  similarly  consults 


186  A  TOUR  m  ITALY.  [1868. 

the  safety  of  its  inmates  by  having  a  blank,  or  almost 
blank,  outer  wall,  and  a  court  into  which  its  component 
rooms  open.  And  a  like  constmction  snrvived  with  modifi- 
cations in  the  Pompeian  house,  after  safety  against  enemies 
had  ceased  to  be  so  imperative  a  consideration.  Through- 
out times  subsequent  to  the  burial  of  Pompeii,  this  type 
persisted,  with  modifications  dictated  by  the  requirements. 
The  feudal  castle  had  its  parts  thus  related.  So,  too,  as 
we  may  see  in  both  Italy  and  France,  had  the  town-hotel 
of  the  great  noble.  The  Inn  of  the  middle  ages  displayed  a 
like  arrangement.  The  bed-rooms  opened  upon  balconies 
running  round  the  courtyard;  and  this  arrangement 
survived  until  recently  not  only  in  the  Tabard,  of  poetic 
fame,  but  at  the  Black  Bull  in  Holborn,  where,  when  a  boy 
of  fourteen,  I  once  slept  in  one  of  such  bed-rooms.  Large 
town-houses  in  old  Paris,  and  still  more  in  Italian  cities, 
show  us  the  transition  from  this  type,  in  which  the  rooms 
of  the  same  dwelling  open  into  a  central  court,  to  a 
type  in  which  these  rooms  have  developed  into  separate 
dwellings — houses  round  the  court  built  with  their  front 
doors  opening  into  it.  And  we  may  readily  see  how 
the  court  as  thus  composed,  is  transformed  into  the  narrow 
passage  opening  out  of  a  main  street,  which  now  bears 
that  name.  One  of  these  internal  squares  with  its  inde- 
pendent houses,  needs  but  to  have  its  sides  brought  close 
together  at  the  same  time  that  it  is  elongated,  to  produce 
one  of  the  modern  courts,  so-called,  such  as  Dr.  Johnson's 
Court  and  others  opening  out  of  Fleet  Street.  Evidently 
there  is  an  interesting  chapter  of  social  evolution  to  bo 
written  about  these  progressive  modifications. 

Shortly  after  seeing  Pompeii  I  lefc  Naples.  I  did  not 
visit  Sorrento  or  Amalfi,  nor  did  I  go  over  to  Capri ;  and, 
indeed,  left  unseen  many  objects  and  places  of  interest  in 
the  neighbourhood.  But  the  "Eternal  City''  was  in 
prospect  and  tempted  me  away. 

A  tedious  railway -journey  took  me  to  Rome.     Here  the 


.^T.  47.]  A   TOUR  IN   ITALY.  18T 

aspect  of  things,  and  chiefly  of  the  City  itself,  impressed 
me  very  differently.  Especially  charming  was  the  colouring, 
which  seemed  everywhere  harmonious  :  each  turn  round  a 
street-corner  disclosing  a  combination  of  tints  such  as  an 
artist  might  have  devised.  Father  Secchi,  an  astronomer 
then  of  some  note,  to  whom  I  had  a  letter  of  introduction, 
and  through  whose  telescope  I  saw  some  star-spectra, 
ascribed  this  peculiarity  in  Rome  to  the  brightness  of  the 
light ;  but  as  no  such  peculiarity  struck  me  in  Naples,  and 
as  I  did  not  see  how  more  light  could  give  harmony  to 
colours  which  were  not  otherwise  harmonious,  I  could  not 
accept  the  interpretation. 

Something  like  a  fortnight  was  spent  in  Rome  with 
much  interest;  though  probably  not  with  so  great  an 
interest  as  that  felt  by  most.  For  in  me  there  were 
very  few  of  the  historical  associations.  What  Roman  history 
I  had  read  in  my  boyhood  had  left  but  faint  traces  in  my 
memory.  Even  had  it  left  clear  images  I  doubt  whether 
my  appreciation  of  the  things  seen  would  have  been  much 
enhanced.  To  me  the  attractiveness  of  ancient  buildings 
is  almost  exclusively  that  resulting  from  the  general 
impression  of  age  which  they  yield,  and  from  the  pictur- 
esqueness  of  decay.  When  I  go  to  see  a  ruined  abbey  or 
the  remains  of  a  castle,  I  do  not  care  to  learn  when  it  was 
built,  who  lived  or  died  there,  or  what  catastrophes  it 
witnessed.  I  never  yet  went  to  a  battle-field,  although 
often  near  to  one  :  not  having  the  slightest  curiosity  to  see 
a  place  where  many  men  were  killed  and  a  victory  achieved. 
The  gossip  of  a  guide  is  to  me  a  nuisance;  so  that,  if  need 
were,  I  would  rather  pay  him  for  his  silence  than  for 
his  talk :  much  disliking,  as  I  do,  to  be  disturbed  while 
experiencing  the  sentiments  excited  in  me  by  the  forms 
and  colours  of  time-worn  walls  and  arches.  It  is  always 
the  poetry  rather  than  the  history  of  a  place  that  appeals 
to  me.  Such  being  the  case,  I,  of  course,  looked  with 
uninterested    eyes   on    many   things    in   Italy   which  are 


188  A  TOUR  IN   ITALYj  [1868. 

extremely  interesting  to  those  familiar  with  the  incidents 
they  are  connected  with. 

I  will  not  weary  either  the  travelled  or  untravelled 
reader  by  detailing  my  seeings  and  doings  while  in  Rome. 
One  thing  only  am  I  prompted  to  do — to  seize  the  occasion 
for  venting  my  heresies  concerning  the  old  masters  : 
probably  to  the  satisfaction  of  a  few  and  the  anger  of 
many.  I  have  long  wished  to  do  this,  and  cannot  now  let 
pass  so  convenient  an  opportunity. 

In  Kugler's  Hand  Booh  of  Painting  I  read^  in  the  account 
of  Raphael's  death  : — "  Men  regarded  his  works  with  reli- 
gious veneration,  as  if  God  had  revealed  himself  through 
Raphael  as  in  former  days  through  the  prophets."  A 
feeling  of  this  kind  relative  to  Raphael,  widely  diffused  I 
suppose,  has  co-operated  with  another  feeling,  also  widely 
diffused,  relative  to  the  old  masters  at  large.  Just  as  the 
paper  and  print  forming  a  Bible  acquire,  in  most  minds, 
such  sacredness  that  it  is  an  offence  to  use  the  volume  for 
any  trivial  purpose,  such  as  stopping  out  a  draught ;  so  a 
picture  representing  some  Scriptural  incident  is,  in  most 
minds,  placed  above  fault-finding  by  its  subject.  Average 
people  cannot  dissociate  the  execution  from  the  thing 
represented ;  and  condemnation  of  the  one  implies  in  their 
thought  disrespect  for  the  other.  By  these  two  feelings, 
criticism  of  ancient  works  of  art  has  been  profoundly 
vitiated.  The  judicial  faculty  has  been  mesmerised  by  the 
confused  halo  of  piety  which  surrounds  them. 

Hence  when,  in  Kugler,  I  find  it  remarked  concerning 
Raphael's  "  Transfiguration  "  that  "  it  becomes  us  to  offer 
any  approach  to  criticism  with  all  humility  " — when  I  see 
the  professed  critic  thus  prostrating  himself  before  a  repu- 
tation ;  my  scepticism  respecting  the  worth  of  the  current 
applause  of  the  old  masters  is  confirmed.  And  when 
those  who  have  "  taken  exception  "  to  "  the  two-fold  action 
contained  in  this  picture  "  are  called  by  Kugler  "  shallow 
critics,"    I   have   not   the  slightest  hesitation  in   classing 


ZEt.  47.]  A  TOUR  IN  ITALY.  189 

myself  with  them ;  nor  have  I  the  slightest  hesitation  in 
rejecting  the  excuse  that  this  fatal  fault  "is  explained 
historically  "  by  the  circumstances  of  the  depicted  incident. 
As  though  a  fundamental  vice  in  a  work  of  art  can  be  got 
rid  of  by  learning  that  it  is  involved  in  the  scene  repre- 
sented !  As  though  one's  eyes,  gravitating  now  to  one, 
now  to  the  other,  of  the  conflicting  centres  of  interest,  can 
be  prevented  from  doing  so  by  any  such  explanation  ! 

Detailed  criticisms  cannot  be  made  intelligible  when 
the  painting  criticised  is  not  before  us;  otherwise  many 
might  be  passed  on  "the  Transfiguration."  For  the  same 
reason  it  is  difficult  to  deal  in  any  but  a  general  way  with 
Michael  Angelo's  frescoes  in  the  Sistine  Chapel.  Were 
they  of  recent  date,  we  might  marvel  that  the  conception 
of  the  Creator  is  made  so  little  to  transcend  the  conception 
of  the  created  as  in  the  figures  of  God  and  Adam;  and 
might  say  that  the  emergence  of  Eve  out  of  Adam's  side 
is  effected  by  a  being  more  like  a  magician  than  a  Deity. 
But  when  we  find  the  contemporary  Protestant  Luther 
saying  in  his  Table  Talk  that  God  "  could  be  rich  soon  and 
easily  if  he  would  be  more  provident,  and  would  deny  us 
the  use  of  his  creatures,"  and  expressiug  his  belief  that 
"  it  costeth  God  yearly  more  to  maintain  only  the  sparrows 
than  the  yearly  revenue  of  the  French  King  amounteth 
unto  " — when  we  find  ideas  so  grossly  anthropomorphic  in 
a  reformer  of  the  faith,  we  cannot  expect  from  Michael 
Angelo,  holding  the  faith  in  its  unreformed  state,  ideas 
that  are  other  than  grossly  anthropomorphic.  Passing 
over  criticisms  of  this  class,  therefore,  and  admitting  that 
there  are  many  figures  and  groups  finely  drawn  (though 
they  exhibit  too  much  his  tendency  to  express  mental 
superiority  by  supernatural  bigness  of  muscles)  let  me  say 
something  concerning  the  decorations  at  large.  Here  the 
fault  in  art  is  of  the  same  kind  as  that  which  is  common  in 
the  reception-rooms  of  English  houses,  where  the  aim  is  to 
achieve  two  ends  that  are  mutually  exclusive — to  make  a 


190  A  TOUR  IN  ITALY.  [1868. 

fine  whole  and  to  include  a  crowd  of  fine  parts.  Con- 
tinually one  sees  saloons  so  filled  witli  paintings  or  engrav- 
ings, statuettes,  vases,  objects  of  vertu  etc,  that  they  have 
become  little  else  than  picture  galleries  or  cabinets  of 
curiosities;  and  the  general  impression  is  lost  in  the 
impressions  produced  by  the  multitudinous  pretty  things. 
But  if  a  room  is  to  be  made  itself  a  work  of  art,  as  it 
should  be,  then  the  paintings,  statuettes  and  minor  orna- 
ments, must  be  relatively  few  in  number,  must  be  so 
distributed  that  they  fall  into  their  places  as  component 
parts,  and  must  none  of  them  be  obtrusive  enough  to  dis- 
tract attention  from  the  ensemble.  The  like  is  true  of  every 
interior,  no  matter  what  its  size  or  purpose,  and,  among 
others,  of  such  an  interior  as  the  Sistine  Chapel.  If  this 
be  considered  as  a  receptacle  for  works  of  art,  then  it  is 
faulty  because  it  displays  them,  or  at  any  rate  the  greater 
part  of  them,  in  the  worst  possible  ways.  If  it  is  considered 
as  in  itself  a  work  of  art,  then  it  is  bad  because  the  effects 
of  its  decorative  parts  conflict  too  much  with  the  effect  of 
the  whole.  Its  fault  as  a  whole  is  like  the  fault  of  one  of 
its  chief  components — the  fresco  of  the  Last  Judgment; 
over  which  the  eye  wanders  unable  to  combine  its  elements. 
Were  there  anything  like  discrimination  in  the  praises  of 
pictures  by  the  old  masters — were  they  applauded  only  for 
certain  merits  at  the  same  time  that  their  demerits  were 
recognized,  I  should  have  no  objection  to  make.  Or  were 
each  of  them  more  or  less  approved  as  being  good 
relatively  to  the  mental  culture  of  its  age,  which  was 
characterized  by  crude  ideas  and  sentiments  and  undiscip- 
lined perceptions,  I  should  agree  that  many  of  them 
deserve  praise.  But  the  applause  given  is  absolute  instead  of 
relative;  and  the  grossest  absurdities  in  them  are  habitually 
passed  over  without  remark.  Take,  for  example,  Guido's 
much  admired  fresco,  "Phoebus  and  Aurora."  That  it 
has  beauty  as  a  composition  is  undeniable.  That  the 
figures  of  the  Hours  are  gracefully  drawn  and  combined 


/Ex.  47.]  A  TOUR   IN  ITALY.  101 

is  beyond  question.  Some  of  its  unobtrusive  faults 
may  fitly  be  forgiven.  That  the  movements  of  the 
Hours  are  such  as  could  not  enable  them  to  keep  pace 
with  the  chariot,  and  that,  being  attached  to  figures 
which  are  exposed  to  ''the  wind  of  their  own  speed," 
some  of  the  draperies  could  not  assume  such  forms  as 
are  given,  are  defects  which  may  be  passed  over ;  since, 
when  the  subject  is  supernatural,  there  are  traits,  such  as 
running  on  clouds,  which  are  not  to  be  tested  by  congruity 
with  observable  facts.  But  as  utter  divergence  from  the 
natural  in  the  drawing  of  the  figures,  etc.  would  not  have 
been  excused  by  the  supernaturalness  of  the  subject;  so, 
neither  should  utter  divergence  from  the  natural  in  re- 
spect of  light  and  shade  be  thus  excused.  In  the  first 
place,  the  country  over  which  the  chariot  is  advancing, 
instead  of  being  shown  as  dimly  lighted  by  it,  is  shown  as 
already  in  broad  daylight — a  daylight  utterly  unaccount- 
able. Far  more  remarkable  than  this,  however,  is  the 
next  anomaly.  The  entire  group, — the  chariot  and  horses, 
the  hours  and  their  draperies,  and  even  Phoebus  himself, 
— are  represented  as  illuminated  from  without :  are  made 
visible  by  some  unknown  source  of  light — some  other  sun ! 
Stranger  still  is  the  next  thing  to  be  noted.  The  only  source 
of  light  indicated  in  the  composition — the  torch  carried  by 
the  flying  boy — radiates  no  light  whatever.  Not  even  the 
face  of  its  bearer,  immediately  behind,  is  illumined  by  it ! 
Nay,  this  is  not  all.  The  crowning  absurdity  is  that  the 
non-luminous  flames  of  this  torch  are  themselves  illumi- 
nated from  elsewhere !  The  lights  and  shades  by  which 
the  forms  of  the  flames  are  shown,  are  apparently  due  to 
that  unknown  luminary  which  lights  up  the  group  as  a 
whole,  as  well  as  the  landscape  !  Thus  we  have  absurdity 
piled  upon  absurdity.  And  further,  we  have  them  in  place 
of  the  splendid  efi^ects  which  might  have  been  produced  had 
Nature  not  been  gratuitously  contradicted.  If  Phoebus 
himself  had  been  represented  as  the  faintly-outlined  source 


192  A  TOUR  m  ITALY.  [1868. 

whence  radiated  the  light  upon  the  horses^  the  hours,  the 
draperies,  the  clouds,  and  the  dimly-visible  Earth,  what  a 
magnificent  combination  of  lights  and  shades  might  have 
been  produced:  not  taking  away  from,  but  emphasizing, 
the  beauty  of  the  forms ! 

"  You  must  not  criticize  the  old  masters  in  this  way/' 
I  hear  said  by  some.  "You  must  consider  the  ideas  and 
sentiments  expressed  by  their  works,  and  the  skilful 
composition  shown  in  them,  and  must  overlook  these 
technical  defects."  Space  permitting,  I  might  here  ask  in 
how  many  cases  the  merits  thus  assumed  exist.  But 
without  entering  any  such  demurrer,  I  will  limit  myself  to 
the  defects  classed  as  technical ;  and  I  reply  that  these  are 
not  to  be  overlooked.  When  it  is  proved  to  me  that,  on 
reading  a  poem,  I  should  think  only  of  the  fineness  of  the 
idea  it  embodies,  and  should  disregard  bad  grammar, 
halting  versification,  jarring  rhymes,  cacophonous  phrases, 
mixed  metaphors,  and  so  on;  then  I  will  admit  that  in 
contemplating  a  picture  I  may  properly  ignore  the  fact 
that  the  light  is  shown  to  come  in  various  directions  or 
from  nowhere  in  particular.  After  I  have  been  persuaded 
that  while  listening  to  a  piece  of  music  I  ought  to  ignore 
the  false  notes,  the  errors  in  time,  the  harshness  of  timbre, 
as  well  as  the  lack  of  distinction  between  piano  and  forte 
passages,  and  that  I  should  think  only  of  the  feeling 
which  the  composer  intended  to  convey ;  then  I  will  agree 
that  it  is  proper  to  pay  no  regard  to  the  fact  that  the 
shades  in  a  picture  have  been  all  so  unnaturally  strengthened 
as  to  make  them  everywhere  alike  in  degree  of  darkness, 
(a  defect  which  cannot  be  explained  away  as  being  due 
to  the  alleged  darkening  of  the  shadows  by  time).  Quite 
admitting,  or  rather  distinctly  affirming,  as  I  do,  that 
truthful  representation  of  the  physical  aspects  of  things 
is  an  element  in  pictorial  art  of  inferior  rank  to  the 
truthful  representation  of  emotion,  action,  and  dramatic 
combination ;  I  nevertheless  contend  that  the  first  must  be 


iET.  47.J  A  TOUR   IN  ITALY.  193 

achieved  before  the  second  can  be  duly  appreciated.  Only 
when  the  vehicle  is  good  can  that  which  is  to  be  conveyed 
be  fully  brought  home  to  the  spectator's  consciousness. 
The  first  thing  to  be  demanded  of  a  picture  is  that  it  shall 
not  shock  the  perceptions  of  natural  appearances — the 
cultivated  perceptions,  I  mean.  If,  as  in  many  works  of 
the  old  masters,  a  group  of  figures  standing  out  of  doors  is 
represented  with  in-door  lights  and  shades  upon  it ;  and  if 
a  spectator  who  has  looked  at  Nature  with  such  careless 
eyes  that  he  is  unconscious  of  this  incongruity,  does  not 
have  his  attention  distracted  by  it  from  the  composition  or 
the  sentiment;  this  fact  is  nothing  to  the  point.  The 
standard  of  judgment  must  be  that  of  the  observant — not 
that  of  the  unobservant.  If  we  may  fitly  take  the  verdicts 
of  those  who  cannot  distinguish  between  truth  and  untruth 
in  the  physioscopy  of  a  picture,  we  may  fitly  go  further, 
and  make  our  aesthetic  ideas  conform  to  those  of  the 
cottager  who  puts  on  his  mantel-shelf  a  gaudily  painted 
cast  of  a  parrot,  and  sticks  against  his  wall  a  coloured  print 
of  the  Prodigal  Son  in  blue-coat  and  yellow  breeches.'^ 

In  rejoinder  to  all  this,  there  will  doubtless  come 
from  many  the  question — "  How  about  the  experts  ?  how 
happens  it  that  they,  who  are  the  most  competent 
judges,  applaud  these  same  works  of  which  you  speak 
so  disrespectfully  ?" 

My  first  reply  is  that,  were  the  truth  known,  the  question 

•  I  venture  the  new  word  just  used,  because  there  exists  no  word 
expressive  of  all  those  traits  in  a  picture  which  concern  the  i^hysical 
appearances  of  the  objects  represented.  Under  "physioscopy"  I  propose 
to  include  the  rendering  of  the  phenomena  of  linear  perspective,  of  aerial 
perspective,  of  light  and  shade,  and  of  colour  in  so  far  as  it  is  determined 
not  by  artistic  choice,  but  by  natural  conditions — e.g.  that  of  water  as  affected 
by  the  sky,  the  clouds,  and  the  bottom.  The  conception,  the  sentiment,  the 
composition,  the  expression,  may  some  or  all  of  them  be  good  in  a  picture 
of  which  the  physioscopy,  in  some  or  all  of  its  elements,  is  bad ;  and  vice 
verta.  The  characteristics  included  in  the  one  group  are  entirely  separate 
from  those  included  in  the  other ;  and  there  needs  a  word  by  which  the 
distinction  may  be  conveyed  without  circumlocution. 

V6 


194  A  TOUR  IN  ITALY,  [1868. 

would  be  less  unhesitatingly  put;  for  by  no  means  all 
experts  tbink  what  they  are  supposed  to  tbink.  As  tbere 
is  a  religious  ortbodoxy  so  is  tbere  an  sestbetic  ortbodoxy  j 
and  dissent  from  tbe  last,  like  dissent  from  tbe  first, 
brings  on  tbe  dissenter  tbe  reprobation  of  tbe  majority, 
wbicb  usually  includes  all  wbo  are  in  power.  Hence  it 
results  tbat  many  artists — especially  wben  young  and  afraid 
of  offending  tbe  autborities — refrain  from  saying  tbat  wbicb 
tbey  secretly  believe  respecting  traditional  reputations.  As 
I  can  testify,  tbere  are  tbose  among  tbem  wbo  do  not  join 
in  tbe  cborus  of  applause  commonly  given  to  tbe  painters 
of  past  times,  but  wbo  know  tbat  tbeir  asstbetic  beterodoxies, 
if  uttered,  would  make  enemies.  Wben,  bowever,  tbey 
bave  reason  to  tbink  tbat  wbat  tbey  say  will  not  bring  on 
tbem  tbe  penalties  of  beresy,  tbey  express  opinions  quite 
unlike  tbose  tbey  are  assumed  to  bold. 

My  second  reply  is  tbat,  so  long  as  tbe  professed  approval 
of  artists  is  unaccompanied  by  adoption  of  tbe  practices  of 
tbose  approved,  it  goes  for  little.  Imitation  is  said  to  be 
tbe  sincerest  form  of  jQattery — or  ratber,  it  sbould  be,  not 
of  flattery,  but  of  admiration ;  and  tbere  are  many  traits  of 
tbe  old  masters  perfectly  easy  to  imitate,  wbicb  artists 
would  imitate  if  tbey  really  admired  tbem.  Let  us  again 
cboose  illustrations  from  ligbt  and  sbade.  In  tbe  great 
majority  of  cases,  ancient  painters  represented  sbadows  by 
diif  erent  gradations  of  black  :  making  a  tacit  assumption 
like  tbat  made  by  every  boy  wben  be  begins  to  draw.  But 
modern  painters  do  not  follow  tbis  lead.  Tbougb  tbe 
artist  of  our  day  may  not  bave  formed  for  bimself  tbe 
generalization  tbat  a  place  into  M'bicb  tbe  direct  ligbt 
cannot  fall,  being  one  into  wbicb  tbe  indirect  and  usually 
diffused,  ligbt  falls,  must  have  tbe  average  colour  of  tbis 
diffused  ligbt  (often  qualified  by  tbe  special  lights  re- 
flected from  particular  objects  near  at  band),  and  that 
therefore  a  shadow  may  be  of  any  colour  according 
to    circumstances;    yet   bis  empirical  knowledge   of  this 


.Et.  47].  A  TOUR  IN  ITALY,  195 

truth  makes  him  studiously  avoid  the  error  which  his 
predecessor  commonly  fell  into.  Take  another  case.  An 
assumption  quite  naturally  made  at  the  outset,  is  that 
surfaces  which  retreat  from  the  light  must  in  retreating 
become  more  deeply  shaded ;  and,  in  conformity  with  this 
assumption,  we  usually  see  in  old  paintings  that  while  the 
outer  parts  of  shadows  are  comparatively  faint,  the  parts 
remote  from  their  edges  are  made  very  dark — a  contrast 
which  must  have  existed  originally,  and  cannot  have 
resulted  from  age.  But  now-a-days  only  a  tiro  habitually 
does  this.  The  instructed  man  knows  that  the  interior  part 
of  a  shadow,  often  no  darker  than  its  exterior  part,  is, 
under  some  conditions,  even  less  dark  than  the  part  near 
its  edge ;  and  he  rarely  finds  the  conditions  such  as  call 
upon  him  to  represent  the  interior  part  of  the  shadow  by 
an  opaque  black.  Once  more  there  is  the  kindred  mistake, 
usual  in  old  paintings,  that  curved  surfaces,  as  of  limbs, 
where  they  are  shown  as  turning  away  from  the  general 
light,  are  habitually  not  shown  as  having  the  limiting  parts 
of  their  retreating  surfaces  lighted  up  by  radiations  from 
objects  behind ;  as  they  in  most  cases  are.  But  in  modern 
paintings  these  reflected  lights  are  put  in;  and  a  true 
appearance  of  roundness  is  given. 

Thus,  as  I  say,  in  respect  of  some  most  conspicuous  traits, 
easily  imitated,  the  artist  of  our  time  carefully  avoids 
doing  as  the  ancient  artist  did ;  and  such  being  the  case, 
his  eulogies,  if  he  utters  them,  do  not  go  for  much.  When 
we  have  to  choose  between  the  evidence  derived  from 
words  and  the  evidence  derived  from  deeds,  we  may  fitly 
prefer  the  evidence  derived  from  deeds.^ 

Concerning  what  I  did  and  saw  during  the  rest  of  my 
tour,  I  need  say  but  little.     Those  who  have  not  seen  Italy 

*  The  opinions  of  several  experts  to  whom  I  have  submitted  in  proof  the 
foregoing  expressions  of  dissent  from  current  opinion,  show  that  I  am  not 
without  the  sympathy  of  some  who  must  be  regarded  as  competent  judges, 
Au  K.A.   writes:— "Art  amateurs  often   seem  to  mo  quite  'duff  in  their 

13* 


196  A  TOUR  IN  ITALY.  [1868. 

have  read  about  it.  The  subject  has  been  so  well  worn  by 
generations  of  travellers  that  it  is  threadbare. 

My  journey  from  Rome  to  Florence,  like  my  journey 
from  Naples  to  Rome,  of  course  gave  me  impressions  of 
Italian  scenery.  There  was  much  to  be  admired,  joined 
to  something  with  which  to  be  disappointed.  While  the 
colouring  of  the  sky  and  clouds  and  the  hills  on  the 
horizon  was  more  brilliant  than  any  I  had  before  seen,  the 
surfaces  near  at  hand  were  generally  unattractive  :  being 
nearly  always  so  ill  covered  with  vegetation  that  the  soil  was 
everywhere  visible  between  the  leaves  of  the  plants  and 

worship  of  old  art,  simply  because  it  it  old,  without  any  reference  to  its 
merit  either  of  conception  or  execution.  But  this  worship  is  so  deeply 
rooted,  and  so  much  esteemed  '  the  right  thing  '  that  any  reformation  in  our 
own  time  is  almost  hopeless.  Is  it  not  The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  tabie 
who  says  that  '  the  mind  of  a  bigoted  person  is  like  the  pupil  of  the  eye,  the 
more  light  you  throw  into  it,  the  more  it  contracts.' "  An  A.R.A.,  in  whose 
opinion  the  works  of  the  old  masters  should  be  judged  in  connexion  with  the 
sentiments,  ideas,  and  perceptions,  of  their  respective  times,  and  not  from 
our  point  of  view,  proceeds  thus  : — "  Now  I  have  said  what  I  had  to  say  in 
vindication  of  the  old  masters,  but  I  believe  that  what  you  have  said  against 
them  is  calculated  to  do  unmixed  good,  for  no  subject  exists  that  has  hitherto 
been  set  forth  to  the  world  by  persons  so  ignorant,  so  affected,  or  so  impotent 
as  the  scribbUng  critics  of  the  last  generation."  Another  A.R.A.,  who  says 
of  certain  ancient  artists  that  "with  all  their  faults  we  can  see  the  hand  of 
genius,"  also  says  of  what  I  have  written  above  that  he  hopes  it  "  will  help 
to  stop  some  of  the  nonsense  promulgated  by  the  Kuglers  and  others.  As 
for  your  criticisms  on  fact  I  think  all  artists  will  agree." 

[While  the  foregoing  note  was  standing  in  type  there  appeared  in  the 
Magazine  of  Art  for  July,  1888,  a  paper  by  Sir  John  Millais  called  "  Thoughts 
on  Our  Art  of  to-day,"  containing  the  following  significant  utterances : — "  To 
say  that  the  old  alone  is  good  betrays  great  lack  of  judgment  and  is  an  ingrati- 
tude to  the  living.  Ability  and  talent  are  more  abundant  than  ever  ;  but  in 
forming  an  opinion  of  them  the  critic  falls  into  two  great  errors — the  first,  in 
forgetting  that  the  form  and  demands  of  Art  have  changed  and  expanded  with 
the  advance  of  time ;  and  the  second,  in  failing — unconsciously,  of  course — to 
judge  of  the  great  works  of  the  past,  with  which  he  compares  those  of  the 
present,  in  a  fair  and  proper  manner.  He  makes  no  allowances  for  the 
charm  of  mutilation  or  the  fascination  of  decay.  .  .  .  Time  and  varnish  are 
two  of  the  greatest  of  old  masters,  and  their  merits  and  virtues  are  too  often 
attributed  by  critics — I  do  not  of  course  allude  to  the  professional  art-critics 
— to  the  painters  of  the  pictures  they  have  toned  and  mellowed."] 


MT.i7.]  A  TOUR  IN  ITALY.  197 

tlie  blades  of  grass.  I  felt  inclined  to  say  of  Italy,  that 
it  is  a  land  of  beautiful  distances  and  ugly  foregrounds. 

Florence  I  saw  very  incompletely :  staying  there,  as  I 
did,  only  a  week.  From  the  collections  of  paintings  I 
derived  more  pleasure  than  from  those  in  Rome,  which 
consist  so  largely  of  mere  rubbish.  I  observed,  however, 
when  going  through  those  of  the  Pitti  Palace  and  the 
Uffizj,  that  some  of  the  works  I  chiefly  admired  were  by 
painters  whose  names  were  unfamiliar  to  me :  another 
manifestation,  I  suppose,  of  my  habitual  nonconformity. 
But,  as  I  say,  I  gave  inadequate  attention  to  the  attrac- 
tions of  the  place  and  its  neighbourhood — did  not  even 
visit  Fiesole.  I  was  companionless  and  impatient.  Groing 
alone  from  church  to  gallery  and  from  gallery  to  church, 
had  become  wearisome ;  and,  disappointed  as  I  was  in  the 
hoped-for  benefits  to  health,  I  was  anxious  to  get  home. 

Leaving  Florence  about  the  end  of  the  first  week  in 
April,  while  it  was  still  very  cold,  and  spending  half  a 
day  at  Pisa,  I  went  by  night  steamer  from  Spezzia  to 
Genoa.  Two  days  were  agreeably  spent  there;  for  the 
city,  like  other  Italian  cities,  has  an  individuality  which 
gives  it  interest.  Thence  I  proceeded  to  Turin,  which  was 
not  attractive  enough  to  detain  me  more  than  a  day.  A 
railway  journey  to  the  Mont  Cenis,  and  a  journey  by  night 
over  the  Pass,  partly  by  diligence  and  partly  by  sledge 
(for  the  tunnel  was  not  yet  made),  brought  me  in  an 
exhausted  state  to  Chambery,  where  I  remained  a  day  and 
a  half  to  recruit.  Ending  the  next  day  at  Medoc  and  the 
day  after  that  at  Paris,  I  reached  home  without  further 
stoppage ;  having  been  absent  about  six  weeks. 

What  I  thought  and  felt  about  this  expedition  and  its 
results,  may  best  be  told  by  quoting  a  letter  on  the  subject 
written  to  my  American  friend  on  May  3.  It  ran  as  follows : — 

"  I  cannot  say  that  my  hopes  that  a  journey  through  Italy  would  put  m« 
into  working  order  were  realized.    I  oame  baok  no  better  than  I  went :  in 


198  A  TOUK  IN  ITALY.  [1868. 

fact  in  some  respects  not  so  well.  I  have,  however,  been  improving  very 
considerably  during  the  last  week  ;  especially  in  sleeping,  which  is  my  great 
difBculty.  Indeed  I  now  feel  pretty  sanguine  that  with  tolerable  care  I  shall 
shortly  get  into  my  usual  state. 

' '  Thanks  for  your  reminder  about  my  visit  to  America.  I  fear,  however, 
there  is  no  prospect  of  my  soon  responding  to  your  wish.  My  recent  experi- 
ence has  given  me  very  conclusive  proof  that  with  my  irritable  nervous 
system,  I  am  quite  unfit  for  travelling.  I  was  greatly  exhausted  by  my 
journey  to  Marseilles,  although  I  stopped  a  night  at  Paris  and  a  night  at 
Lyons.  My  voyage  to  Naples  did  me  further  damage.  Sleep  was  quite  out 
of  the  question.  What  little  I  got  during  these  nights,  I  owed  to  morphia. 
And  during  the  last  three  weeks  of  my  stay  abroad,  a  leading  subject  of 
thought  with  me  was,  how  I  should  get  home  again  with  the  least  amount  of 
injury — which  was  the  shortest  route,  and  how  it  might  best  be  broken  into 
short  stages.  After  this  experience  you  will  see  that  it  is  out  of  the  question 
for  me  to  commit  myself  to  a  ten  or  twelve  days  voyage,  or  to  such  railway 
journeys  as  travelling  through  the  U.S.  would  involve.  If  I  should  ever 
again  get  into  a  normal  state,  which  does  not  seem  very  probable,  I  may 
decide  differently ;  but  while  I  remain  as  I  am  I  must  give  up  the  idea  of 
extensive  journeys. 

"A  further  reason  for  thus  deciding  is  that,  quite  apart  from  fatigue,  I  find 
the  penalties  of  travelling  greater  than  the  pleasures.  In  early  days  I  had  a 
considerable  appetite  for  sight-seeing ;  but  now-a-days  my  appetite  is  soon 
satiated — especially  as,  not  looking  at  things  through  the  spectacles  of 
authority,  I  often  find  but  little  to  admire  where  the  world  admires,  or 
professes  to  admire,  a  great  deal.  The  chief  pleasure  I  get  in  travelling 
I  get  from  fine  scenery ;  and  of  this  there  is  plenty  to  be  had  without 
leaving  Great  Britain." 

It   should  be   added,  however,  that  in  this  case,  as  in 

many  cases,  a  benefit  not  appreciable  during  the  journey 

itself  began  to  be  appreciable  after  it  was  over.     One  may 

figuratively  express   the   results   of   such   experiences  by 

saying  that  after  being  hardly  used  for  a  time,  the  system 

is  put  upon  its  good  behaviour  and  goes  on  better. 


CHAPTER  XLVII. 
DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY. 

1868—70.     ^t.  47—50. 

My  daily  efforts  for  some  four  months  before  tlie  Italian 
tour  just  narrated,  had  been  expended  on  the  "Data  of 
Psychology" — the  first  division  of  the  treatise  in  its 
developed  form.  With  this  I  struggled  to  make  some 
progress  notwithstanding  my  nervous  relapse ;  and  to  that 
end,  as  already  described,  took  Mr.  Duncan  with  me  to 
the  racquet  court,  and  alternated  between  dictation  and 
games. 

Some  of  my  friends  have  expressed  surprise  that  I 
should  be  able  to  carry  on  my  work  by  dictation;  and 
others  have  expressed  surprise  that  I  should  be  able  to 
interrupt  a  course  of  thought,  for  the  purpose  of  taking 
exercise,  and  then  resume  it.  "I  do  not  think  properly 
until  I  take  pen  in  hand,"  said  one  of  them ;  "  and  I  am  at 
a  loss  to  understand  how  you  can  reel  off  your  ideas  to  an 
amanuensis."  Another  described  himself  as  unable  to 
bear  interruption  when  once  he  got  his  thoughts  bent  to 
a  subject. 

The  sohition  is  much  simpler  than  at  first  appears.  In 
an  early  chapter  (Vol.  I.  p.  399)  I  described  the  way  in 
which  my  conceptions  on  this  or  that  subject  developed 
themselves.  I  said  that  my  method  was  not  that  of  sitting 
down  to  a  problem,  and  puzzling  over  it  till  I  came  to 
some  conclusion,  but  was  that  of  letting  my  ideas  about  it 
slowly  take  shape.  This  process  usually  went  on  for  years. 
As  the  time  approached  when  the  conception  had  to  be  set 


200  DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCEOLOGY,       [1868. 

forth,  it  was  of  course  more  frequently  dwelt  upon.  The 
divisions  of  it  gradually  made  themselves  clear;  and 
presently  a  scheme  of  chapters  was  arranged.  Then  each 
chapter,  as  I  came  near  to  it,  fell  more  or  less  completely 
into  sections ;  and  eventually,  before  writing  a  section,  the 
ideas  to  be  set  down  in  it  assumed  tolerable  distinctness. 
Thus  the  essential  part  of  the  work — the  thinking — ^was 
done  before-hand ;  and  the  process  of  writing  or  dictating 
became  simply  that  of  putting  into  words  the  thoughts 
already  elaborated.  It  was  therefore  easy  to  take  up  the 
thread  when  broken,  and  to  any  idea  that  had  been  set  down, 
join  the  idea  already  internally  arranged  to  follow  it.  I 
felt  no  such  difficulty  as  is  doubtless  felt  by  those  who 
evolve  their  ideas  while  writing;  and  who,  if  interrupted, 
lose  their  hold  on  thoughts  which  are  just  rising 
into  consciousness. 

And  here,  while  comparing  these  two  modes  of  compo- 
sition, I  see  that  the  contrast  explains  some  traits  of  style 
respectively  accompanying  them.  Setting  forth  ideas 
already  reached  is  accompanied  by  but  little  emotion; 
whereas  evolving  ideas  from  moment  to  moment,  while 
writing,  inevitably  causes  exaltation  of  feeling.  In  the 
one  case  there  is  calmness ;  in  the  other  there  is  fervour. 
But  calmness  is  not  favourable  to  strong  and  vivid  forms  of 
expression ;  whereas  fervour  prompts  picturesque  phrases, 
and  vigorous  metaphors.  The  telling  expressions  used  by 
my  friend  who  says  he  does  not  think  to  purpose  until  he 
gets  pen  in  hand,  have  often  raised  my  envy.  It  is  doubt- 
less true  that  for  purposes  of  philosophy,  clearness  rather 
than  strength  is  the  desideratum.  But  for  writing  of  a 
not  strictly  philosophical  or  scientific  kind,  one  may 
fitly  desire  to  use  those  modes  of  embodying  thoughts 
which  result  from  emotion  and  are  calculated  to 
excite  emotion. 

Resuming  the  thread  of  my  narrative,  I  have  to  add 
that  when,  after  partially  recovering  from  the  effects  of 


^T.  48.]    DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY,  201 

my  Italian  tour,  I  recommenced  work,  I  reverted  to  tlio 
alternation  of  exercise  and  dictation — substituting  rowing 
for  racquets.  The  part  of  the  Serpentine  above  tbe  bridge 
is  witbin  10  minutes  walk  of  Queen's  Gardens ;  and  here, 
on  fine  mornings  in  May  and  June,  and  again  in  tbe 
Autumn,  I  passed  two  or  three  hours :  the  shrubbery  over- 
hanging the  water  on  the  west  bank,  affording  convenient 
shelters  under  which  to  moor  the  boat  while  dictating. 

My  journey  to  the  furthest  point  South  I  had  hitherto 
reached,  was  followed,  three  months  later,  by  a  journey 
which  carried  me  to  the  northernmost  point  of  my  various 
excursions.  In  July  I  went  as  far  as  Sutherlandshire  in 
search  of  fishing,  and  stayed  for  a  week  at  Inverann  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Shin.  But  the  long  drought  of  that 
summer  continued,  and  I  came  away  disappointed. 

On  my  way  back  I  bethought  me  of  Inveroran,  a  place 
between  Tyndrum  and  Glencoe,  where  there  was  salmon 
fishing  free  to  all  staying  at  the  hotel.  Common  sense 
had  told  me  that  free  salmon  fishing  must  be  bad  salmon 
fishing ;  but  common  sense  had  misled  me.  Common  sense, 
which  would  reject  as  monstrously  absurd  the  statement 
that  a  whale  is  more  nearly  akin  to  a  man  than  to  a  shark, 
always  proceeds  upon  the  assumption  that  the  insides  of 
things  are  just  what  the  outsides  might  lead  you  to  expect; 
whereas,  not  uncommonly,  realities  are  unlike  appearances. 
So  it  proved  at  Inveroran ;  owing  to  circumstances  which 
no  longer  exist.  A  letter  to  Lott,  written  thence  on  Aug. 
13,  must  here  be  quoted — 

"You  were  quite  right  in  your  opinion,  given  to  G.  Holme,  about  my 
standing  for  Derby.  If  they  would  pay  my  expenses  and  give  me  a  salary 
into  the  bargain,  I  would  not  go  into  parliament.  I  could  not  do  my  present 
work  and  parliamentary  work  too ;  and  my  present  work  I  hold  to  be  by  far 
the  most  important.  Some  day,  if  a  constituency  should  ask  me  to  become 
A  candidate,  I  mean  to  give  them  (and  the  public)  "  a  bit  of  my  mind,"  as 
to  the  relative  values  of  those  who  represent  public  opinion  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  those  who  mould  public  opinion  by  books. 
"How  about  our  excursion?    What  do  you  say  to  a  fortnight  in  North 


202  DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOaY.        [1868. 

Yorkshire  ?  It  would  be  new  to  both  of  us,  and  they  say  there  is  very  fine 
scenery  there.  We  could  meet  there  conveniently  on  my  way  south,  and 
might  diverge  into  the  Lake  district  if  we  did  not  like  it.  .  . 
"As  you  did  not  come  up  to  be  my  guest  in  London  at  Xmas  or  Easter,  I 
propose  that  you  make  amends  by  coming  to  be  my  guest  in  Yorkshire,  or 
wherever  else  we  go. 

"I  have  had  some  capital  fishing  since  the  wet  weather  set  in — far  better 
than  I  looked  for." 

Many  years  elapsed  before  there  occurred  an  opportunity 
for  carrying  into  effect  the  intention  expressed  in  the  first 
of  the  foregoing  paragraphs.  It  did  eventually  occur, 
however,  and  I  then  fulfilled  the  intention.  My  appre- 
hension was  that  general  reprobation  would  fall  on  me 
in  consequence;  but,  to  my  surprise,  there  came  general 
approbation.  I  suspect  that  a  chief  cause  for  this  was 
that  the  tone  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  already 
undergoing  that  degradation  which  has  since  become 
so  conspicuous. 

The  proposal  made  in  the  second  paragraph  was  presently 
carried  out.  My  friend  and  I  met  at  Harrogate,  and,  taking 
rail  to  Ilkley,  walked  the  first  day  thence  to  Bolton  Abbey, 
where  we  lingered  till  the  bats  were  flying  about  in  the 
evening.  Something  more  than  a  week  was  spent  in  our 
subsequent  ramble :  ascending  the  valley  of  the  Wharfe  to 
Kettlewell;  from  there  over  to  Middleham;  up  Wensleydale 
to  Hawes ;  down  the  valley  of  the  Eden  to  Appleby  ;  over 
the  moors  or  fells  to  High  Force  on  the  Tees ;  down  the 
course  of  that  river  to  Darlington;  and  thence  to  York, 
where  we  parted  for  our  respective  homes. 


I  have  not  yet  mentioned  the  fact  that,  for  some  years, 
the  Leweses  had  been  residing  at  The  Priory,  North  Bank. 
The  distance  from  Queen's  Gardens  is  but  a  mile ;  and  this 
proximity  conduced  to  more  frequent  intercourse.  There 
arose  a  standing  engagement  to  go  and  lunch  with  them 
whenever  I  found  it  convenient.  The  motive  for  the  arrange- 
ment was   in  part  that   we  might  have  opportunities  for 


1 

^T.  48.]    DEVELOPING  THE  PaSTC^OZOG^F.  203 

conversations,  enjoyed  on  both  sides,  which  were  impractic- 
able during  their  Sunday-afternoon  assemblies. 

I  am  led  to  name  here  this  established  usage  because 
my  return  from  Scotland  this  year  must  have  been  the 
occasion  for  one  of  those  witticisms  which  George  Eliot 
sometimes  uttered.  I  had,  as  commonly  happened  after  an 
interval  of  absence,  been  giving  an  account  of  my  doings; 
and,  among  other  things,  had  laughingly  described  the  dis- 
may caused  in  two  fishermen  at  Inveroran  by  the  success  of 
my  heterodox  flies.  This  led  to  an  inquiry  concerning 
the  nature  of  my  heterodoxy.  I  explained  that  I  did  not 
believe  in  the  supposed  critical  powers  of  salmon  and  sea- 
trout,  but  held  that  if  one  of  them,  being  hungry,  saw  some- 
thing it  took  for  a  fly,  it  would  rise ;  and  that  consequently 
my  aim  was  to  make  the  best  average  representation  of  an 
insect  buzzing  on  the  surface  of  the  water.  "Yes,"  she 
said,  "  you  have  such  a  passion  for  generalizing,  you  even 
fish  with  a  generalization." 

This  reference  to  her  good  things  reminds  me  of  one 
which  Lewes  told  me  she  had  uttered  at  the  expense  of 

Dr.  A ,  a  friend  of  theirs  who  was  remarkable  for  his 

tendency  to  dissent  from  whatever  opinion  another  uttered. 
After  a  conversation  in  which  he  had  repeatedly  displayed 

this  tendency,  she  said  to  him, "Dr.  A how  is  it  that  you 

always  take  your  colour  from  your  company?"  "/  take 
my  colour  from  my  company?"  he  exclaimed — "What  do 
you  mean  ?  "     "  Yes,"  she  replied,  "  the  opposite  colour." 

Our  talk,  if  not  very  often  enlivened  by  witticisms, 
always  contained  a  mixture  of  the  gay  with  the  grave  :  good 
stories  and  a  little  badinage  breaking  our  discussions,  which 
were  generally  quite  harmonious ;  for  there  were  but  few 
points  on  which  we  disagreed.  Then  after  luncheon  came 
a  walk,  usually  in  Eegent's  Park,  in  which  I  joined  :  another 
hour  of  interesting  conversation  being  the  accompaniment. 

Though  they  were  partial  adherents  of  M.  Comte   my 


204  DEVELOPING  THE  PSYGEOLOaY.       [1868. 

friends  did  not  display  mucli  respect  for  the  object  which 
he  would  hare  us  worship.  Eeverence  for  humanity  in  the 
abstract  seemed,  in  them,  to  go  along  with  irreverence 
for  it  in  the  concrete.  Few  of  these  occasions  I  have 
described,  passed  without  comment  from  them  on  the  un- 
intelligence  daily  displayed  by  men — now  in  maintaining 
so  absurd  a  curriculum  of  education  (which  they  reprobated 
just  as  much  as  I  did),  now  in  the  follies  of  legislation, 
which  continually  repeat,  with  but  small  differences,  the 
follies  of  the  past,  now  in  the  irrationalities  of  social  habits. 
I  have  myself  often  startled  people  by  the  paradox  that 
mankind  go  right  only  when  they  have  tried  all  possible 
ways  of  going  wrong — ^intending  it,  of  course,  to  be  taken 
not  quite  literally.  Of  late,  however,  I  have  observed 
sundry  cases  in  which,  instead  of  going  beyond  the  fact,  it 
falls  short  of  it — cases  in  which,  having  found  the  right, 
people  deliberately  desert  it  for  the  wrong.  They  do  this 
even  in  simple  household  usages,  where  a  small  modicum 
of  sense  might  have  been  expected  to  prevent  them.  A 
generation  ago  salt-cellars  were  made  of  convenient  shapes 
— either  ellipses  or  elongated  parallelograms :  the  advantage 
being  that  the  salt-spoon,  placed  lengthwise,  remained  in 
its  place.  But,  for  some  time  past,  fashion  has  dictated 
circular  salt-cellars,  on  the  edges  of  which  the  salt- 
spoon  will  not  remain  without  skilful  balancing :  it  falls 
on  the  cloth.  Table-implements  afford  another  example. 
In  my  boyhood  a  jug  was  made  of  a  form  at  once  convenient 
and  graceful.  The  body  of  the  jug  had  a  shape  deviating 
but  little  from  a  sphere,  and  therefore  had  the  advantage 
that  however  the  jug  was  inclined  the  surface  of  the 
contained  liquid  had,  for  a  considerable  time,  nearly  the 
same  area;  so  that,  with  increasing  inclination,  pouring 
out  went  on  at  a  tolerably  uniform  rate.  The  spout,  too, 
was  sufficiently  large;  and  of  such  shape  that  it  would  deliver 
either  a  small  or  a  large  quantity  without  waste.  And  then, 
within  the  limits  of  convenience,  the  outline  of  jug  and 


^T.  48.]    DEVELOPING  THE  PSTCHOLOOY.  205 

handle  admitted  of  numerous  elegant  combinations  of 
curves.  Now,  however,  the  prevailing — ^indeed  almost 
universal — form  of  jug  in  use,  is  a  frustum  of  a  cone,  with 
a  miniature  spout.  It  combines  all  possible  defects. 
When  anything  like  full,  it  is  impossible  to  pour  out  a 
small  quantity  without  part  of  the  liquid  trickling  down 
beneath  the  spout ;  and  a  larger  quantity  cannot  be  poured 
out  without  exceeding  the  limits  of  the  spout  and  running 
over  on  each  side  of  it.  If  the  jug  is  half  empty,  the  tilting 
must  be  continued  for  a  long  time  before  any  liquid  comes; 
and  then,  when  it  does  come,  it  comes  with  a  rush  ;  because 
its  surface  has  now  become  so  large  that  a  small  inclination 
delivers  a  great  deal.  To  all  which  add  that  the  shape  is 
as  ugly  a  one  as  can  well  be  hit  upon.  Still  more  extra- 
ordinary is  the  folly  of  a  change  made  in  another  utensil  of 
daily  use.  Till  within  these  few  years,  an  extinguisher  had 
universally  the  form  of  a  hollow  cone.  Nothing  could  be 
better.  It  would  fit  any  candle;  it  went  down  upon  it  until 
it  was  arrested  by  the  melted  edge  of  the  candle ;  and  it 
then  formed  a  chamber  in  which  the  smoke  was  shut  up 
and  the  wick  preserved  from  damage.  Now,  however,  we 
meet  with  extinguishers  made  in  the  form  of  a  hollow 
cylinder  with  a  hemispherical  end.  When  one  is  put  on  a 
candle  (if  it  will  go  over  it  at  all)  it  descends  until  the 
hemispherical  end  squashes  the  wick  into  the  melted  com- 
position :  the  result  being  that  when,  next  day,  the  ex- 
tinguisher is  taken  off,  the  wick,  imbedded  in  the  solidified 
composition,  cannot  be  lighted  without  difficulty.  Here, 
then,  are  three  of  the  commonest  household  appliances, 
good  forms  of  which  have  been  deliberately  abandoned 
and  bad  forms  adopted. 

One  reason  why  good  things  thus  fail  to  hold  their 
ground  against  bad  ones,  recently  came  to  my  knowledge. 
For  twenty  years  I  had  used  with  great  satisfaction  a  kind 
of  inkstand  which  possesses  every  desirable  trait.  It  is 
capacious,  stable,  checks  evaporation,  keeps  out  the  dust. 


206  DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY       [1868. 

and  allows  the  depth  of  the  dip  to  be  adjusted  to  a  nicety. 
I  recommended  it  to  some  friends,  and  tried  to  buy  samples 
to  send  them.  None  of  the  stationers  of  whom  I  inquired 
knew  anything  about  it.  At  length  I  went  to  the  wholesale 
producer,  Perry ;  and  it  was  only  because  his  people  had 
some  old  stock  remaining  that  I  obtained  it  even  there,  for 
they  had  ceased  to  make  it.  I  asked  the  manager  why 
things  which,  when  they  came  in,  were  recognized  as 
eminently  good,  disappeared  again — why  the  stationers 
did  not  keep  them.  "  Oh  !  Sir,"  he  replied,  "  when  our 
travellers  go  round,  the  stationers,  after  a  short  time, 
will  not  take  them.  'We  had  some  of  these  last  year,' 
they  say  :  '  show  us  your  novelties.'  Always  the  cry  for 
something  fresh."  If  we  go  behind  this,  it  is  clear 
that  the  stationer  wants  the  last  new  things,  because 
his  customers  want  them;  and  that  they  buy  them 
without  thinking  whether  they  are  better  or  worse  than  the 
old  things.  Thus  articles  in  every  way  admirable  are 
actually  expelled  from  the  market !  And  then  the  insane 
love  of  change  shown  in  such  cases,  we  find  accompanied 
by  an  insane  resistance  to  change  in  other  cases  !  Where 
cogent  reasons  for  giving  up  established  usages  are  mani- 
fest to  every  one,  people  persist  in  them ;  and  where 
there  is  every  reason  for  adhering  to  what  they  have  got, 
they  are  eager  for  something  else  ! 

But  I  am  getting  too  discursive.  Let  me  return 
to  an  account  of  my  doings  in  the  days  which  were 
now  passing. 

On  preparing  to  do  this  I  suddenly  find  that  I  am 
promising  more  than  I  can  perform.  Of  incidents  during 
the  remaining  part  of  this  year  and  the  early  part  of  the 
next,  my  memory  contains  no  traces ;  and  on  referring  to 
letters  I  find  scarcely  anything  to  help  me.  One  solitary 
fact  of  significance  is  named  in  a  letter  to  Youmans  dated 
19  Sept. ;  and  this  is  of  more  interest  to  me  than  to  the 


^T.  48.]    DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  207 

reader — the  fact,  namely,  that  another  of  my  books  had  been 

taken  in  hand  by  a  French  translator :  making  three  that 

were    simultaneously   in  progress.     Nothing   more   worth 

mention  occurs  before  the  15th  of  March  1869.    Then  comes 

a  letter  containing  the  following  passage  : — 

"  Certainly,  the  falling  off  in  the  American  sales  of  my  books  last  year  ia 
somewhat  unexpected.  The  Biology,  and  the  second  edition  of  First 
Principles,  cannot  yet  have  returned  to  me  the  cost  of  the  stereotype  plates ; 
so  that  thus  far  I  am  rather  out  of  pocket  by  the  American  editions  than  a 
gainer  by  them.  It  seems  odd,  too,  that  with  an  increased  number  of  volumes 
on  sale,  the  return  should  be  much  less  instead  of  much  more.  I  suppose  it 
must  all  be  taken  as  proof  that  the  public  attention  flags  when,  as  you  say, 
nothing  has  been  done  to  excite  it. 

"  It  is,  however,  a  consolatory  fact  for  me  that  I  have  no  longer  any  reason 
to  complain  that  public  appreciation  here  is  so  much  less  than  it  is  in 
America.  The  relation  between  the  two  is  now  very  decisively  reversed. 
Last  year  my  net  profit  from  the  sale  of  books  (leaving  out  the  subscriptions 
for  the  serial)  was  considerably  more  than  double  that  which  the  account 
shows  to  have  resulted  from  the  American  sales.  So  you  must  not  in  future 
make  any  comparisons  between  the  American  and  English  publics  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  latter." 

I  should  have  said,  however,  that  the  two  sums  compared 
did  not  measure  the  numbers  of  books  sold  ;  since  my  profit 
per  copy  from  sales  in  England  is  double  that  yielded  by 
sales  in  America.  Bearing  in  mind,  too,  that  the  retail  price 
per  copy  in  America  is  somewhat  lower,  it  would  seem 
that  the  numbers  sold  in  the  two  countries  respectively  did 
not  differ  much. 

Doubtless  the  increased  sales  in  England  were  largely 
due  to  the  energetic  action  taken  by  my  friends  Mill, 
Huxley,  Tyndall,  Lubbock,  and  Busk,  in  1866;  and  to  the 
consequent  attention  drawn  to  my  books — an  attention 
which  was  doubtless  increased  when  statements  about  the 
American  testimonial  were  made  public  here.  Let  me  add 
that  from  this  time  forth  I  had  no  adverse  circumstances  to 
contend  with.  The  remainder  of  my  life-voyage  was 
through  smooth  waters. 

No  memories  were  raised  by  coming  upon  the  following 


208  DEVELOPING  THE  PSYGHOLOaY.       [1869. 

sentence  in  a  letter  written  on  14  April  1869 : — "  Though 

better,  I  am  still  not  well,  and  am  leaving  town  to-day  for 

a  short  ramble  in  the  country."     But  for  a  letter  written  on 

June  25, 1  should  have  failed  to  identify  the  occasion  as  one 

on  which  I  went  first  to  Oxford  (whence,  before  twenty-four 

hours  had  passed,  I  fled  to  escape  invitations) ;  then  walked 

to  Blenheim,  where  I  rambled  about  the  park,  and  slept  at 

"Woodstock ;  and  on  subsequent  days  went  through  Evesham 

to  Tewkesbury,  and  into  the  country  beyond.     The  passage 

which  recalled  these  incidents  was  the  following : — 

"  The  most  striking  fact,  perhaps,  is  that  which  came  to  my  knowledge 
when  at  Oxford  lately.  To  my  amazement  I  found  that  First  Principles  and 
the  Principles  of  Biology  are  being  used  as  text-books  there,  and  questions  for 
examination  papers  taken  from  them.  Dr.  Bolleston  stopped  a  student  and 
asked  him,  in  my  presence,  whether  he  had  entered  on  my  books  yet.  He 
replied  that  he  was  just  about  to  commence  them." 

This  passage  I  quote  not  so  much  for  its  intrinsic  interest 
as  because  it  introduces  the  statement  of  an  anomalous 
fact.  University  College,  London,  was  founded  for  the 
purpose  of  giving  an  unsectarian  education,  free  from  the 
ecclesiastical  influences  which  pervade  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge ;  and,  by  implication,  it  was  to  be  the  home  of  a  liberal 
theology  :  tinged  even  with  rationalism,  if  the  opinions  of 
its  leading  spirits  indicated  anything.  Hence  there  might 
have  been  expected  a  sympathetic  reception  to  books  of  an 
advanced  kind,  embodying  what  may  be  called  a  naturalistic 
philosophy  as  distinguished  from  a  super-naturalistic 
philosophy.  But  while,  in  the  head-quarters  of  orthodoxy, 
my  books  were  being  used  as  text-books,  they  were  not 
used  at  the  place  which,  by  contrast,  might  almost  be  called 
the  head-quarters  of  heterodoxy.  More  than  this.  While 
at  Oxford  the  authorities  put  them  before  the  students,  at 
University  College  tliey  were  not  even  included  in  the 
Library.  Nay  more  than  this  even.  Bequests  made  by 
the  students  that  one  of  them  might  be  put  in  the  Library 
received  no  attention.  Two  years  after  the  foregoing 
extract  was  written.  Dr.  Bastian  shewed  me,  in  the  book 


.Et.  48.]    DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  209 

kept  for  the  purpose,  two  requisitions  for  First  Principles; 
one  of  them  dated  December  1869  and  signed  by  ten 
students,  and  the  other  dated  March  1870,  also  signed  by 
ten  students,  and  marked  "  third  time  " :  all  three,  as  it 
seems,  having  been  ignored  by  the  Council ;  for  the  book 
was  not  in  the  Library  in  September  1871. 

How  many  things  there  are  contrary  to  common  sense! 
I  have  already  named  one  in  this  chapter,  and  here 
is  another. 

A  letter  received  during  this  absence  from  London  recalls 
an  incident  which  must  be  here  mentioned — the  formation 
of  the  Metaphysical  Society.  The  letter  was  from  Sir  John 
Lubbock,  asking  whether  I  would  become  a  member. 

The  Society  was  to  have,  he  said,  a  somewhat  remarkable 
character;  for  its  members  were  to  be  men  of  the  most 
diverse  opinions,  from  Roman  Catholics  like  Cardinal 
Manning  at  the  one  extreme,  to  agnostics  like  Huxley  and 
Tyndall  at  the  other  extreme,  and  everything  was  to  be  an 
open  question,  even  to  the  existence  of  a  deity :  original 
intentions  which  were,  I  believe,  fairly  well  carried  out. 
I  declined  to  join  for  the  reason  that  too  much  nervous 
expenditure  would  have  resulted.  Every  attendance  would 
have  entailed  a  sleepless  night ;  and  I  did  not  think  that 
any  benefit  to  be  derived  would  have  been  worth  purchase 
by  this  penalty  :  involving  loss  of  my  small  working  power 
next  day.  After  the  body  was  constituted  I  was  again 
requested  to  join,  and  to  attend  the  first  meeting;  but 
though  Mr.  Knowles,  the  secretary,  through  whom  the 
request  came,  named,  as  a  special  reason  for  assenting,  the 
fact  that  the  first  paper  to  be  read  was  one  by  Mr.  Richard 
Hutton,  attacking  my  theory  of  the  genesis  of  the  moral 
sentiments,  I  persisted  in  my  resolution. 

Beyond  those  named  above,  various  distinguished  men 
joined  the  Society — Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr.  Tennyson  (who, 
with  Mr.   Knowles,  I  believe,  had  started  the  idea),   the 

14 


210  DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.       [1869. 

Rev.  James  Martineau,  Sir  J.  F.  Stephen,  Dean  Stanley 
&c.  &c.  At  each  meeting  a  paper  by  some  member,  which 
had  been  printed  and  circulated,  was  discussed.  Several 
years  subsequently,  during  an  after-dinner  conversation  in 
which  the  proceedings  were  described  as  remarkably 
harmonious,  a  renewed  suggestion  was  made  by  Mr. 
Knowles  that  I  should  join.  After  referring  to  the  state- 
ment made  that  many  of  the  members  had  so  little 
thought  in  common  that  they  slid  by  one  another  without 
grappling,  I  remarked  that  Mr.  Knowles  had  better  not 
press  me,  since  most  likely  were  I  one  of  them  I  should 
insist  on  grappling,  and  that  possibly  the  proceedings 
would  cease  to  be  so  harmonious.  A  dozen  years  or  so 
brought  the  Society  to  an  end.  Most  of  the  topics  of  chief 
interest  had  been  discussed,  and  no  results  produced,  save 
perhaps  a  certain  liberalization  in  the  estimates  formed 
by  the  members  of  one  another's  views.  No  further  results 
being  promised,  and  the  excitement  of  novelty  having 
ceased,  the  attendance  flagged  and  the  Society  dissolved. 

I  now  come  upon  an  incident  of  which  the  interest  is 
more  than  personal — an  incident,  indeed,  of  which  the 
impersonal  interest  is  great ;  since  it  concerns  the  correction 
of  a  grave  error  in  recent  History,  and  the  rectification  of 
international  feeling.  It  may  be  most  conveniently  intro- 
duced by  an  extract  from  a  letter  three  years  earlier  in 
date,  which  I  have  reserved  for  quotation  here,  as  being 
relevant  to  the  transaction  which  now  took  place.  Writing 
to  Youmans  on  March  2nd  1866,  I  said : — 
•'  I  recently  met  Mr.  [Moncure]  Conway,  whose  papers  in  the  Fortnightly 
have  been  doing  good  service  here,  and  have  impressed  me  in  his  favour 
much  more  than  when  I  first  saw  him.  I  took  the  opportunity  of  suggesting 
to  him  to  do  what  I  have  very  much  wanted  to  see  done,  towards  correcting 
the  impressions  of  Americans  respecting  the  original  feeling  of  the  English 
when  the  war  broke  out,  and  which,  as  you  have  heard  me  say,  was  quite 
different  from  what  is  supposed  in  the  United  States.  Mr.  Conway's 
residence  in  England  had,  I  found,  enlightened  him  on  the  matter.  He  was 
quite  aware  that  the  original  feeling  here  was  that  which  I  have  described  to 


^T.  48.]    DEVELOPING  THE  P^FC^C»ZC)(?F.  211 

yon ;  and  that  it  was  changed  as  I  told  you.  He  said  that  he  had  been 
thinking  of  publishing  something  in  America,  giving  the  result  of  his 
experience  here,  towards  rectifying  American  impressions.  But  he  agreed 
that  instead  of  giving  his  own  impressions,  it  would  be  best  to  take  the  course 
I  named,  namely  to  give,  in  the  order  of  their  dates,  extracts  from  the  leading 
English  periodicals,  showing  what  the  feeling  originally  was  and  how  it 
gradually  changed,  and  what  were  the  adverse  influences  that  changed  it. 
I  hope  he  will  persevere  in  the  intention  which  he  expressed,  of  issuing  in 
America  a  pamphlet  containing  this  evidence." 

Either  Mr.  Conway  did  not  carry  out  his  expressed 
intention,  or  he  did  it  with  but  little  success ;  for  the  ill 
feeling  in  the  United  States  not  only  continued,  but 
became  exacerbated.  During  the  early  part  of  1869,  the 
utterances  of  the  American  press  against  England  were 
violent  j  and  I  feared  that  something  more  than  a  war  of 
words  might  ensue.  Knowing  that  the  belief  current  in 
America  was  entirely  untrue,  I  thought  it  very  desirable 
that  some  attempt  should  be  made  to  rectify  it ;  and  after 
talking  the  matter  over  with  the  Leweses,  who  encouraged 
me  to  take  the  step  I  contemplated,  I  drew  up  a  letter  for 
publication  in  one  of  the  New  York  papers,  giving  the 
indisputable  facts.  With  it  I  sent  the  following  private 
letters  to  Youmans,  dated  May  22. 

"  The  accompanying  long  letter,  though  addressed  to  you  personally,  is  of 
course  intended  for  publication.  When  you  have  read  it,  I  think  you  will 
agree  with  me  that  the  facts  it  contains  should  not  any  longer  remain  unknown 
to  your  countrymen. 

"  I  must  leave  you  to  communicate  it  to  such  of  the  New  York  daily  papers 
as  may  be  the  fittest  medium.  I  find  the  Tribune  referred  to  as  the  bitterest 
of  them  all  against  England ;  and  I  suppose  that  some  difficulty  might  hence 
arise  if  you  took  it  there.  Or  else,  in  other  respects,  the  Tribune  would  seem 
the  most  desirable.  I  suppose  simultaneous  publication  in  more  than  one, 
would  not  be  practicable. 

"  I  do  not  know  what  may  be  the  result  of  the  publication  of  this  letter  on 
my  personal  relations  with  the  American  public.  But,  if  it  should  be 
injurious,  I  am  content  to  bear  the  injury." 

In  due  time  there  came  a  reply  explaining  that  the 
publication  had  been  delayed  until  he  had  laid  before 
me  the  reasons  for  withdrawing  my  letter.  Among  other 
things  he  said  : — 

"  I  read  your  letter  intended  for  publication  with  some  surprise  and  with 
an  unhesitating  conviction  that  it  would  be  unwise  to  print  it.    But,  as  you 

14* 


212  DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.        [1869. 

seemed  to  think  the  case  both  clear  and  urgent,  I  at  once  complied  with  your 
request  and  took  it  to  the  Tribune.  You  were  quite  in  error  in  anticipating 
dilficulty  there ;  when  I  named  to  them  its  subject  and  author  they  ordered 
it  to  be  set  up  at  once.  By  a  singular  coincidence,  both  Fiske  and  Boberts 
happened  to  be  in  town,  and  I  met  them  in  the  evening  at  the  Century  Club 
with  Vaux,  Holt,  and  Prompelly — all  friends  and  co-workers.  I  handed  the 
proof  to  Fiske,  who  looked  over  it  and  exclaimed  '  What  does  this  mean  ? 
Surely  Mr.  Spencer  is'nt  going  to  publish  this  ! '  All  the  others  read  it  and 
they  were  all  of  the  same  mind.  As  for  the  subject  of  the  letter,  they  were 
indifferent  and  agreed,  first,  that  if  you  had  been  here  at  any  time  when  the 
question  was  agitating  the  American  mind  and  had  been  disposed  to  enter 
into  the  subject,  you  would  not  have  taken  it  up  in  that  way  ;  and  second,  if 
you  were  here  now,  you  would  not  dream  of  touching  it  at  all,  as  it  is  a  dead 
subject  with  us.  But  their  decided  expressions  of  the  umvisdom  of  the 
publication  had  reference  to  your  position  and  influence,  which  would  be 
damaged  by  it  seriously;  and,  granting  that  you  had  a  perfect  right  to 
Bacrifice  them  if  you  thought  it  best,  they  were  of  opinion  that  you  ought  not  to 
embarass  your  friends  in  the  way  that  the  publication  would  embarass  them." 
Eventually,  and  with  a  good  deal  of  reluctance,  I  assented 
to  tlie  witlidrawal;  as  witness  the  following  extract  from  a 
letter  dated  June  25. 

"  Taking  into  consideration  all  that  you  tell  me,  I  conclude  that  it  will  be 
best  not  to  publish  the  letter.  It  is  somewhat  vexing  to  have  bestowed  so 
much  trouble  to  no  purpose ;  and  I  cannot  but  regret  that  the  facts  which  the 
letter  contains  should  continue  unknown  to  the  American  public.  As, 
however,  the  occasion  which  prompted  me  to  write  the  letter  has  passed  by, 
and  as,  indeed,  the  expressions  of  your  press  seem  to  have  misled  us  here 
respecting  the  state  of  American  opinion,  I  yield  to  the  representations  you 
make.  Of  course  I  have  no  wish  to  damage  my  position  with  the  American 
public,  and  I  shoiild  be  very  sorry  to  embarrass  my  American  friends.  If  you 
have  no  use  for  the  proof  of  tl.e  letter,  you  may  as  well  send  it  to  me,  as  I 
should  like  to  preserve  it." 

Though  not  published  at  that  time,  the  letter  was 
published  some  years  after,  when  more  pacific  sentiments 
prevailed.  Even  then,  however,  the  statements  contained  in 
it,  conclusive  though  they  were,  and  impossible  as  it  was  to 
invalidate  them,  were  treated  with  but  small  respect.  How 
constantly  one  is  misled  by  the  assumption  that  incon- 
testable proofs  will  change  men's  opinions!  Where  there 
exist  strong  prepossessions,  no  amount  of  evidence  produces 
any  effect. 

This  letter,  as  eventually  published  in  the  New  York 
Tribune,  I  reproduce  in  Appendix  E ;  feeling  that  unless 


.Et.  49.]    DEYELOm^G  TB.E  FSYCirOLOGY.  213 

it  obtains  somewliere  a  permanent  place,  the  history  of  our 
relations  with  America  will  be  vitiated  by  a  permanent 
error  of  a  serious  kind. 

Shortly  before  the  close  of  the  London  season,  I  wrote 
to  John  Mill  on  some  matter  which  I  forget,  and,  referring 
to  my  approaching  departure  for  Scotland,  suggested,  more 
in  jest  than  in  earnest,  that  if  he  would  join  me,  I  would 
initiate  him  in  salmon-fishing.  The  following  passage 
from  his  reply  refers  to  this  offer. 

"  My  murderous  propensities  are  confined  to  the  vegetable  world.  I  take 
as  great  a  delight  in  the  pursuit  of  plants  as  you  do  in  that  of  salmon,  and 
find  it  an  excellent  incentive  to  exercise.  Indeed  I  attribute  the  good  health 
I  am  fortunate  enough  to  have,  very  much  to  my  great  love  for  exercise,  and 
for  what  I  think  the  most  healthy  form  of  it,  walking." 

Having  in  boyhood  had  little  or  no  experience  of  the 
ordinary  boyish  sports.  Mill  had  a  somewhat  erroneous 
conception  of  them.  Hence  the  inappropriate  use  of  the 
word  "murderous ; "  as  though  the  gratification  were  exclu- 
sively in  killing.  But  I  quite  agree  in  the  implied  objection 
he  makes  to  pursuits  that  inflict  pain.  Though  so  fond  of 
fishing  as  a  boy,  my  dislike  to  witnessing  the  struggles  of 
dying  fish,  becoming  stronger  as  I  grew  older,  had  the 
result  that  between  21  and  35  I  never  fished  at  all.  It  was 
only  because,  on  being  prompted  to  try  the  experiment  at 
the  latter  age,  I  found  fishing  so  admirable  a  sedative,  serv- 
ing so  completely  to  prevent  thinking,  that  I  took  to  it  again, 
and  afterwards  deliberately  pursued  it  with  a  view  to  health. 
Nothing  else  served  so  well  to  rest  my  brain  and  fit  it  for 
resumption  of  work. 

Of  my  doings  in  Scotland  during  the  Autumn,  the 
following  letter  to  Lott,  dated  Oban,  Aug.  11th,  says 
nearly  as  much  as  is  needful : — 

"  If  you  had  been  at  liberty  a  week  or  a  fortnight  ago  it  would  have  been 
all  right,  but  as  it  happens  it  is  all  wrong — along  with  everything  else  since 
I  left  town. 

"  I  have  been  in  Scotland  a  month  last  Saturday — chiefly  at  Inveroran, 
waiting  for  fishing  which  the  dry  weather  would  not  let  me  have.     I  got  only 


214  DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.        [1869. 

two  salmon.  Last  Friday  I  left  in  disgust  before  I  had  intended ;  for  I 
meant  to  stay  there  till  I  joined  the  Smiths,  who  had  left  me  to  fix  my  own 
time.  They  were  to  leave  town  at  the  beginning  of  this  month ;  and  I  wrote 
from  Inveroran  saying  I  would  be  with  them  on  the  11th  (to-day).  But 
since  my  arrival  here  I  learn  that  they  have  not  reached  Ardtornish  yet  I 
So  here  I  have  to  kick  my  heels  again.  However  they  will  probably  arrive 
to-day,  and  I  may  possibly  join  them  before  the  end  of  the  week. 
"After  I  leave  them,  sometime  early  in  September,  I  have  promised  to  join 
the  Busks,  who  have  taken  a  house  at  Taynuilt ;  so  you  see  I  am  fixed.  I  am 
very  sorry  your  holiday  was  not  earlier." 

My  fishing  this  year  derived  a  special  interest  from  the 
trial  of  a  new  fishing  rod,  or  rather,  a  fishing  rod  with  a 
new  kind  of  joint.  Of  course  it  was  not  in  my  nature  to 
rest  content  with  that  which  I  found  in  use,  if  it  had  any 
manifest  defects ;  and  both  the  forms  of  joint  in  use  were 
seriously  defective :  the  simple  splice-joint  entailed  much 
trouble,  and  the  socket-joint  was  heavy,  and  had  sundry 
inconveniences.  The  form  of  joint  which  I  devised  in 
place  of  them  proved  satisfactory ;  and  having  borne  the 
tests  to  which  it  was  submitted,  I  eventually  published  an 
account  of  it  in  the  Field  some  time  in  January  1871. 
This  letter  is  reproduced  in  Appendix  F. 

Aird's  Bay  House,  taken  by  the  Busks  for  the  autumn, 
is  on  the  shore  of  Loch  Etive  about  a  mile  from  Taynuilt; 
and,  leaving  Ardtornish  towards  the  middle  of  September, 
I  there  joined  them. 

Those  who  have  seen  Loch  Etive  only  from  the  railway, 
or  from  the  high  road  which  skirts  it,  know  little  of  its 
beauties.  These  lie  in  the  part  beyond  Ben  Cruachan,  and 
with  the  exception  of  Loch  Hourn,  Scotland  has  nothing 
at  once  so  grand  and  beautiful.  Boating  excursions  on  this 
secluded  portion,  with  rambles  and  picnics  on  its  shores, 
filled  a  pleasant  ten  days.  An  island  beyond  the  ferry  was 
at  that  time  frequented  by  seals,  which  it  was  interesting  to 
watch  through  an  opera  glass.  Then  on  the  sheltered  and 
smooth  water  there  were  sometimes  reflections  more  splendid 
than  I  ever  saw  elsewhere — whole  sides  of  Ben  Cruachan 
and  his  neighbours  being  vividly  mirrored.     An  excursion 


^T.  49.]    DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  215 

made  to  Loch  Awe  is  linked  to  my  other  memories  by  a 
natural-history  observation  made  there.  The  waters  were 
swarming  with  the  Volvox  glohator,  which  I  had  never  seen 
before  and  have  never  seen  since. 

After  September  22,  when  I  got  back  home,  the  first 
trace  of  any  break  in  my  daily  routine  occurs  in  a  letter 
dated  February  25,  1870;  and  this  is  but  an  insignificant 
trace.  Describing  myself  as  "  a  martyr  to  indigestion  and 
consequent  very  bad  sleeping,"  I  speak  of  a  forthcoming 
remedial  excursion  for  a  few  days  with  Lewes.  We  went 
round  the  south  of  the  Isle  of  Wight.  How  often  it 
happens  that  extremely  small  things  dwell  in  one's  memory, 
when  great  ones  disappear.  Nothing  remains  with  me  of 
this  excursion  save  two  trivialities — the  one  that  we  played 
billiards  at  Ventnor,  the  other  that,  when  sitting  down  to 
dinner  at  Freshwater,  I  made  Lewes  laugh  by  exclaiming — 
"  Dear  me,  these  are  very  large  chops  for  such  a  small 
island."  And  here,  with  this  remark  about  the  survival  of 
trivialities  in  one's  memory,  I  may  join  the  remark  that 
with  me  any  tendency  towards  facetiousness  is  the  result  of 
temporary  elation  :  either,  as  in  this  case,  caused  by  pleasur- 
able health-giving  change,  or,  more  commonly  by  meeting 
old  friends.  Habitually  I  observed  that,  on  seeing  the 
Letts  after  a  long  interval,  I  was  apt  to  give  vent  to  some 
witticisms  during  the  first  hour  or  two,  and  then  they 
became  rare. 

To  Youmans,  on  March  9,  I  wrote  a  letter  of  which 
some  paragraphs  must  be  quoted  : — 

"  Very  unfortunately  for  me,  though  perhaps  fortunately  for  himself,  Mr. 
Duncan  has  been  appointed  Professor  of  Logic  &c.  at  Madras ;  and  leaves 
me  for  India  some  six  weeks  hence.  It  will  be  a  very  difficult  thing  for 
me  to  find  anyone  to  undertake  and  carry  on  efficiently  the  work  he  has  been 
doing  in  preparing  classified  and  tabulated  materials  for  the  Principles  of 
Sociology. 

"  I  remember  you  telling  me  that  in  America,  there  are  plenty  who  would 
gladly  undertake  the  post  which  Mr.  Duncan  fills ;  and  that  so  far  from 
having  to  pay  a  secretary,  I  might,  if  I  pleased,  put  up  the  post  to  auction, 


216  DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.        [1869. 

and  accept  the  highest  bidder.  Without  entertaining  any  such  droll  notion, 
I  am  led  to  infer  from  this  statement  of  yours,  that  I  might  perhaps  be  more 
litely  to  find  with  you,  than  over  here,  some  competent  man  who  would 
render  me  the  required  services  in  return  for  the  very  moderate  salary  I 
can  afford."  .  .  , 

"  I  had  a  pleasant  surprise  this  morning.  It  came  in  the  shape  of  an  Essay 
on  Longevity  by  E.  Bay  Lankester,  one  of  the  rising  young  biologists.  It 
turned  out  to  be  an  avowed  corollary  from  the  Principles  of  Biology,  to  which, 
as  the  author  says,  it  might  form  an  additional  chapter.  But  the  pleasant 
surprise  is  this,  that  the  prize  was  offered,  and  adjudged  to  this  essay  of  Mr. 
Lankester,  by  the  University  of  Oxford.  Fancy  the  Oxford  authorities  giving 
a  public  endorsement  to  the  doctrine  of  Evolution  !  " 

The  loss  of  Mr.  Duncan  created  great  inconvenience. 
When  he  joined  me,  the  understanding  was  that  he  would 
continue  until  the  work  undertaken  by  him  was  finished. 
But  I  could  not,  under  the  circumstances  above  indicated, 
hold  him  to  his  bargain.  He  was  engaged;  and  some  little 
time  before  this  date,  had  intimated  to  me  his  intention  of 
marrying,  narrow  as  his  means  were.  To  have  let  him 
do  so  foolish  a  thing,  while  also  giving  up  a  promising 
career,  was  out  of  the  question ;  and  therefore,  though 
he  expressed  his  willingness  to  abide  by  our  agreement,  I 
released  him.  He  promised  to  go  on  with  the  work  in  India 
as  fast  as  his  professional  duties  allowed;  and  he  loyally 
fulfilled  this  promise — finishing  the  division  he  was  engaged 
upon  without  further  remuneration. 

The  next  passage  in  the  correspondence  which  seems 
worth  quoting,  is  dated  26  April : — 

"I  regretted  very  much  to  hear  of  your  having  been  so  unwell.  I  have 
long  feared  that,  hke  many  others  who  are  anxious  to  diffuse  a  knowledge  of 
the  laws  of  health,  you  would  yourself  have  to  suffer  from  continuously  dis- 
regarding them.  As  I  sometimes  say  jokingly  to  Huxley,  a  propos  of  his 
transgressions,  we  ought  to  erase  the  proverb — "  Experience  makes  fools 
wise,"  and  write  in  place  of  it — "  Experience  does  not  even  make  wise  men 
wise."  I  hope,  at  any  rate,  that  henceforth  you  will  not  so  lavishly  expend 
your  energies  for  the  benefit  of  others,  taking  no  care  of  yourself.  .  .  . 
''  In  the  forthcoming  number  of  The  Fortnightly  you  will  find  an  article  of 
mine  on  "  The  Origin  of  Animal  Worship."  You  will  at  first  perhaps  wonder 
why  I  suspended  my  ordinary  work  to  write  it.  I  did  so  because  it  lies  in 
the  line  of  my  future  work,  and  because  I  saw  that  the  matters  with  which  it 
deals  are  now  being  so  much  studied,  that  if  I  waited  until  I  got  to  the  Sociology 


^T.  49.]    DEYELOVmG  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  217 

I  should  probably  be  forestalled  by  some  one  who  had  meauwhile  reached  the 
same  conclusion.  The  article  will  interest  you  both  as  a  further  illustration  of 
Evolution,  and  also  as,  by  implication,  another  heavy  blow  to  current  beliefs." 

This    article   was   dictated   while   I    was    boating    on    the 

Hegent^s  Park  water;    and  my  amanuensis  was  a  youth 

whose  name  I  cannot  recall,  but  who,  a  few  years  ago, 

wrote    me   a   letter   from   the    East   with    the    signature 

Baron ;  telling  me  how  he  had  prospered,  even  to  the 

attainment  of  a  title  (in  what  way  he  did  not  say),  and 

then  reminding  me  that  he  had  written  the  above-named 

essay  to  my  dictation. 

Of  my  life  between  September  1869  and  July    1870, 

there  is  nothing  more  to  record  than  is  contained  in  the 

above  quotations  and  comments. 

An  old  manor  house  called  The  Argoed,  about  four 
miles  below  Monmouth  on  the  banks  of  the  Wye,  but 
high  above  the  stream,  had  been  for  some  years  in  the 
possession  of  my  friend  Potter;  who  had  bought  it,  with  the 
surrounding  lands,  as  a  sanatorium  for  his  children :  the 
climate  of  Standish  being  relaxing.  Here,  in  July,  1870,  I 
went  with  him  and  two  of  his  daughters.  During  a  pleasant 
ten  days  there  occurred  a  droll  incident.  Tintern  had  to  be 
seen;  and  one  fine  day  boatmen  from  Monmouth  took  the 
young  ladies  and  myself  down  the  river.  The  moon- 
light effects  on  the  ruins  of  the  Abbey  are  said  to  be  very 
fine  ;  and,  filling  the  intervening  time  by  going  on  to  the 
Wyndcliffe,  we  went  to  the  Abbey  in  the  evening.  There 
we  waited  and  waited,  wondering  how  it  was  that  the 
moon  made  no  sign,  and  frequently  glancing  with 
impatience  towards  the  grove  through  which  we  expected 
to  see  its  light.  Presently  the  mystery  was  explained.  It 
rose  above  the  trees  in  a  state  of  eclipse !  There  was  a 
laugh  at  my  expense ;  for  it  was  supposed  that  I,  interested 
in  all  science,  should  of  course  have  known  that  an 
eclipse  was  about  to  take  place.  I  am  reminded  of  a 
kindred  supposition  on  the  part  of  the  head-waiter  at  the 


218  DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.        [1870. 

Athenaeuin,  who  sometimes,  when  the  addition  of  the 
dinner  bill  was  called  in  question,  smiled  at  an  error  made 
by  a  mathematical  friend  of  mine  :  being  surprised  that 
a  distinguished  mathematician  should  err  in  his  figures. 
The  truth  is  that  wide  grasp  of  the  general  is  not 
necessarily  connected  with  great  aptitude  for  the  special. 

After  a  day  at  Monmouth,  pleasantly  varied  by  a  visit 
to  Raglan  Castle,  a  Sunday  at  Hereford,  some  of  which 
was  passed  in  the  enjoyment  of  Cathedral  music,  and  days 
and  parts  of  days  at  Ludlow,  and  Shrewsbury,  I  joined 
the  Lotts  at  Llanfairfechan,  on  the  north  coast  of  Wales. 
A  fortnight  spent  there  has  among  its  remembrances 
the  rush  down  to  the  station  every  morning  to  get  papers 
with  the  last  news  of  the  Franco-German  war,  which  had 
just  commenced — a  war  of  which  the  issues  were  so 
immense  that  one  could  not  but  watch  its  stages  with 
breathless  interest.  Sir  William  Gull  and  Sir  James  Paget 
(not  at  that  time  bearing  the  titles  they  now  have)  were 
staying  at  Penmaenmawr,  near  at  hand ;  and  one  of  my 
pleasant  recollections  is  of  a  drive  to  the  Penrhyn  slate 
quarries,  in  which  they  kindly  invited  me  to  join  them  :  a 
good  deal  of  scientific  talk  being  the  accompaniment. 

I  had  never  seen  Ireland ;  and  when  my  friends  left  for 
Derby,  I  was  prompted,  partly  by  this  consciousness  and 
partly  by  the  desire  for  the  good  salmon-fishing  which 
I  heard  was  to  be  had  at  Ballina,  to  take  my  departure  for 
Holyhead  and  Dublin.  But  as  a  drought,  which  then 
persisted,  extended  over  Ireland;  and  as  the  style  of  living, 
not  very  satisfactory  even  in  Dublin,  threatened  to  be 
unsatisfactory  at  Ballina ;  my  resolution  was  abandoned. 
Taking  train  to  Belfast  and  steamer  to  Glasgow,  I  presently 
found  myself  at  Inveroran.  Thence  after  a  time  I  returned 
to  London. 

This  did  not  end  my  Autumn  holiday  however ;  or 
rather,  there  followed  it  something  which  was  half  holiday 


JEt.  50.]    DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  219 

and  half  a  kind  of  excitement  whicli  tells  on  me  as  much 
as  work.  The  British  Association  met  at  Liverpool  in 
September,  and  Huxley  was  President.  Of  course  I  went 
there  to  do  what  little  towards  the  success  of  the  meeting, 
might  be  done  by  adding  one  to  the  assembly.  On  this, 
as  on  other  occasions  when  a  member  of  the  X  Club  pre- 
sided, the  gathering  had  a  concomitant  pleasure  resulting 
from  the  quasi-domestic  arrangements  made.  All  members 
of  the  X  who  came,  usually  bringing  their  wives,  took 
a  suite  of  rooms  at  the  chief  hotel  and  united  their  forces  : 
the  liveliness  of  the  party  being  increased  by  extending 
hospitalities  to  distinguished  members  of  the  Association 
not  belonging  to  the  group. 

Deviating  from  the  ordinary  course,  which  was  to  give  a 
summary  of  scientific  progress,  the  presidential  address 
dealt  with  the  subject  of  spontaneous  generation,  just  then 
much  discussed,  and  gave  an  account  of  the  dissipation 
of  the  once-universal  belief  in  it.  There  resulted  a  con- 
troversy which  gave  special  animation  to  the  Biological 
Section.  Strangely  enough  there  were  some  biologists 
who  thought  that  their  experiments  verified  the  old  belief; 
and  further  thought  that  the  general  doctrine  of  Evolution 
received  support  from  them.  But,  had  the  alleged  facts 
been  established,  evolutionists  would  have  been  perplexed 
by  them.  That  microscopic  forms  as  much  differentiated 
in  structure  as  those  described,  should  have  been  spon- 
taneously generated,  would  have  been  at  variance  with  their 
doctrine  ;  which  implies  that  the  earliest  living  things 
must  have  been,  if  not  absolutely  structureless,  yet  with  no 
more  structure  than  is  implied  by  some  scarcely  appreciable 
difference  between  outside  and  inside.  Moreover,  it  has 
all  along  been  manifest  to  the  philosophic  biologist,  that  no 
experiments  which,  in  the  materials  used,  pre-suppose  the 
existence  of  organic  matter,  can  throw  any  light  on 
the  genesis  of  organic  forms.  While  believing  that  such 
genesis  originally  took  place  naturally,  under  conditions 


220  DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.        [1870. 

which  no  longer  exist,  they  find  no  evidence  that  it  takes 
place  now ;  and  do  not  believe  that  it  is  likely  to  take 
place  now.  And  here,  let  me  add,  we  have  an  illustration 
of  the  truth  that  the  veritably  scientific  man  will  not 
accept  evidence  which,  though  plausible,  is  open  to  doubt; 
even  when  it  supports  an  hypothesis  he  accepts. 

Before  the  meeting  was  over.  Professor  Tyndall  and  I 
departed  for  the  lakes.  Sunday  morning  found  us  rambling 
along  the  shore  of  Windermere  on  the  way  to  Eydal 
Mount.  Thence  we  proceeded  to  Grasmere;  and  then, 
after  dining,  took  a  boat  to  the  base  of  Loughrigg.  A 
climb  took  us  to  the  top  and  we  descended  to  Ambleside. 
But  a  day's  walking  and  talking  with  Tyndall,  who  gets 
me  into  discussion,  proved  too  much.  A  wretched  night, 
followed  by  the  fear  of  more  such  days,  prompted  a  flight 
back  to  Town. 

And  now  the  close  of  the  year  brought  the  completion  of 
the  first  volume  of  the  developed  Psychology.  Commenced 
at  the  end  of  1867,  this  volume  was  published  in  December 
1870.  Ill  health  must,  I  suppose,  be  debited  with  a  large 
part  of  the  delay.  Certainly  the  long  time  taken  over  the 
work  could  not  have  arisen  from  any  distaste  for  it. 
Contrariwise,  several  feelings  united  in  making  me  enjoy 
the  resumption  of  this  topic  which  I  had  dealt  with  in 
1854-5. 

At  that  date,  as  already  pointed  out,  an  evolutionary 
view  of  Mind  was  foreign  to  the  ideas  of  the  time,  and  voted 
absurd  :  the  result  of  setting  it  forth  being  pecuniary  loss 
and  a  good  deal  of  reprobation.  Naturally,  therefore,  after 
the  publication  of  The  Origin  of  Species  had  caused  the 
current  of  public  opinion  to  set  the  other  way,  a  more 
sympathetic  reception  was  to  be  counted  upon  for  the 
doctrine  of  mental  evolution  in  its  elaborated  form. 

Chief,  however,  was  the  pleasure  of  elaborating  iti — giving 
completeness  to  the  theory  by  building  its  outworks  and 


^T.  50.]    DEVELOPING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  221 

filling  up  lacunse.  Here,  as  before,  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  the  Data  and  the  Inductions  had  to  be  set  forth  before 
proceeding  to  the  work  of  construction,  led  to  interesting 
results.  The  general  views  contained  in  these  first  and 
second  divisions  would  never  have  been  reached  had  it  not 
been  for  the  inquiry — What  are  the  main  facts  of  structure 
and  function  which  Biology  hands  on  to  Psychology;  and 
what  are  the  general  truths  which  mental  phenomena 
present,  considered  apart  from  any  theory  respecting  their 
origin  ?  Then  at  the  close  of  the  volume,  in  the  division 
entitled  "Physical  Synthesis,"  there  had  to  be  set  forth 
the  theory  named  in  the  preface  to  the  first  edition  as  being 
for  several  reasons  withheld.  This  was  an  interesting 
piece  of  work;  and  though  it  has  since  been  shown  me 
that,  under  both  its  physical  and  its  physiological  aspects, 
the  theory,  in  the  form  there  given  to  it,  cannot  be  sustained, 
yet,  as  I  hope  sometime  to  prove,  the  needful  qualifications 
may  be  made  without  invalidating  the  cardinal  principle. 

I  was  about  to  say  that  the  reception  of  the  volume  must 
have  been  tepid,  since  it  has  left  no  recollection  whatever ; 
but  on  looking  through  correspondence  I  find  a  still  better 
cause  for  the  absence  of  all  recollection.  A  letter  to  my 
publisher,  dated  19  December,  says  : — 

"  The  policy  of  not  issuing  copies  for  review,  which  we  adopted  in  the 
case  of  the  second  volume  of  the  Biology,  and  the  second  edition  of  First 
Principles,  answers  so  well  that  we  will  continue  it.  I  find,  on  examining  the 
accounts,  that  since  the  adoption  of  this  policy  the  sale  of  my  books  has 
about  doubled.  I  do  not  suppose  that  the  absence  of  misleading  criticisms 
has  had  much  to  do  with  this ;  though,  as  I  have  learnt  from  their  OAvn  lips, 
some  readers  have  been  deterred  for  years  from  looking  at  my  books  by  the 
erroneous  impressions  of  them  they  had  gathered  from  reviews.  But  this 
large  increase  of  sale  may,  at  any  rate,  be  taken  as  evidence  that  the  course 
adopted  is  not  detrimental. 

"We  will  therefore  estabUsh  it  as  a  permanent  rule.  Do  not  send  out  copies 
of  this  first  volume  of  the  Principles  of  Psychology  now  published,  to  any  of 
the  periodicals — daily,  weekly,  monthly  or  quarterly.  And  let  whatever 
works  I  publish  hereafter  be  similarly  withheld. 

"  Now,  or  in  time  to  come,  copies  for  review  may  occasionally  be  applied  for. 
To  meet  such  applications,  please  keep  this  letter ;  and  let  a  copy  of  it  be  sent 


222  DEVELOPING  THE  FSYCIIOLOGY.        [1870. 

by  way  of  answer.    This  will  show  that  the  refusal  is  not  exceptional  but 
general." 

Subsequent  resumption  of  the  ordinary  habit  was  not  due 
to  any  change  of  belief  respecting  the  policy  of  this  course, 
but  was  due  to  a  cause  which  I  cannot  here  indicate  with- 
out forestalling  matters.    It  will  become  apparent  hereafter. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY, 

1870-72.    ^t.  50-52. 

With  the  ending  of  the  first  volume  of  the  Psychology 
and  the  beginning  of  the  second,  a  new  kind  of  mental 
actior  was  commenced.  While  the  first  volume,  or,  to 
spea:^  strictly,  the  constructive  part  of  it,  is  synthetic,  the 
second  volume  is  analytic.  The  process  of  taking  to  pieces 
our  intellectual  fabric  and  the  products  of  its  actions,  until 
the  ultimate  components  are  reached,  had  now  to  be  under- 
taken; and,  among  other  things,  it  had  to  be  shown  that 
the  structure  of  Mind,  as  ascertained  in  this  way,  corresponds 
with  its  structure  as  ascertained  by  tracing  up  its  successive 
stages  of  development. 

Was  this  change  an  agreeable  one  ?  I  think  I  may 
say  that  it  was.  Not,  indeed,  intrinsically,  but  simply  as 
involving  another  form  of  intellectual  activity.  And  here, 
as  being  relevant  to  the  question  whether  I  liked  best  the 
synthetic  or  the  analytic  mode  of  thought,  I  may  say 
something  about  my  intellectual  tendencies  in  relation  to 
the  two.  A  few  years  ago  I  saw  it  remarked  that  there 
appeared  to  be  in  me  equal  proclivities  towards  analysis 
and  towards  synthesis.  Up  to  that  time  I  had  supposed 
myself  to  be  alone  in  the  recognition  of  this  trait. 

It  is  a  trait  which  will,  I  think,  be  manifest  to  anyone 
who  looks  into  the  evidence  furnished  by  my  books.  While, 
on  the  one  hand,  they  betray  a  great  liking  for  drawing 
deductions  and  building  them  up  into  a  coherent  whole ; 
on  the  other  hand,  they  betray  a  great  liking  for  examining 


224  FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  [1870. 

the  premises  on  which  a  set  of  deductions  is  raised,  for  the 
purpose  of  seeing  what  assumptions  are  involved  in  them, 
and  what  are  the  deeper  truths  into  which  such  assumptions 
are  resolvable.  There  is  shown  an  evident  dissatisfaction 
with  proximate  principles,  and  a  restlessness  until  ultimate 
principles  have  been  reached;  at  the  same  that  there  is 
shown  a  desire  to  see  how  the  most  complex  phenomena 
are  to  be  interpreted  as  workings  out  of  these  ultimate 
principles.  It  is,  I  think,  to  the  balance  of  these  two 
tendencies  that  the  character  of  the  work  done  is  mainly 
ascribable. 

Much  scope  for  further  exercise  of  the  analytic  faculty 
was  not  afforded  by  Part  VI  (Special  Analysis).  But  with 
arrival  at  Part  VII  (General  Analysis)  there  came  the 
occasion  for  expanding  and  completing  the  conception  first 
briefly  and  crudely  set  forth  in  the  "  Universal  Postulate," 
published  in  1853,  and  further  developed  in  the  first  edition 
of  the  Principles  of  Psychology  in  1855.  To  this  division, 
and  the  divisions  succeeding  it,  my  limited  energies  were 
chiefly  devoted  during  the  period  covered  by  this  chapter. 

Already  I  have  hinted  that  a  great  change  in  the  routine 
of  my  life  followed  my  election  into  the  Athenaeum  Club ; 
and  what  there  is  to  say  about  it  I  may  as  well  say  here. 

My  place  of  abode  was,  in  several  ways,  desirable  in 
position.  Its  proximity  to  Kensington  Gardens  made  more 
constant  than  it  might  else  have  been,  a  morning's  walk 
of  half  an  hour  before  beginning  work.  Then  when,  some- 
thing like  an  hour  after  luncheon,  came  the  walk  into  Town, 
my  route  lay  over  gra>ss  and  under  trees  nearly  all  the  way : 
through  Kensington  Gardens,  Hyde  Park,  and  the  Green 
Park ;  so  that  I  could  reach  the  Club  without  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  upon  pavement.  Once  at  the  Club,  a 
miscellaneous  process  of  killing  time  commenced.  Having 
already  glanced  through  The  Tivies  after  breakfast,  the 
•news-room  did  not  detain  me;  save  on    Saturdays  when 


^T.  50.]      FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOaY.  225 

some  of  the  weekly  periodicals,  not  found  in  the  other  rooms, 
had  to  be  looked  at.  Commonly  some  little  time  was  spent  in 
the  drawing  room  in  glancing  through  the  contents  of  the 
Monthly  Magazines  and  Quarterly  Keviews :  skipping  most 
articles  and  dipping  into  a  few.  I  rarely  read  one  tlirough. 
Then  came  the  new  books,  of  which  the  chief  were  obtained 
from  Mudie  for  the  convenience  of  members  who  wished, 
some  to  read  them  and  others  to  see  what  they  were  about. 
I  was  usually  one  of  the  latter  class.  Biographies,  histories, 
and  the  like,  I  commonly  passed  over  without  opening  them. 
Books  of  travel  had  an  attraction  for  me;  and  I  glanced 
through  them  with  an  eye  to  materials  for  my  work. 
Passages  telling  me  of  the  institutions,  beliefs,  characters, 
usages  &c.  of  the  uncivilized,  I  not  unfrequently  copied. 
Of  course  all  works  treating  on  this  or  the  other  branch  of 
Science,  as  well  as  those  which  dealt  with  philosophical 
questions,  special  or  general,  including  those  on  Theology, 
were  looked  into.  To  observe  the  current  of  opinion  was 
one  motive ;  and  another  motive  was  to  make  myself 
acquainted  with  the  criticisms  passed  on  my  own  views, 
which  I  not  unfrequently  found  objects  of  attack.  Novels 
were  temptations  to  be  resisted ;  for  I  dare  not  expend  on 
them  the  needful  amount  of  reading  power.  Once  in  a 
year,  perhaps,  I  treated  myself  to  one ;  and  then  I  had  to 
get  through  it  in  a  dozen  or  more  instalments. 

There  was  a  further  occupation  which  filled  a  consider- 
able space.  Playing  billiards  became  "my  custom  always 
of  the  afternoon."  I  found  it  a  very  desirable  way  of 
passing  the  time:  preventing  thinking  and  excluding  the 
temptation  to  read.  Those  who  confess  to  billiard-playing 
commonly  make  some  kind  of  excuse.  Change  of  occu- 
pation is  needful,  they  say ;  or  it  is  alleged  that  the  game 
entails  a  certain  amount  of  beneficial  exercise.  It  must 
not  be  supposed  that  the  benefits  I  have  just  named  are 
similarly  meant  as  excuses.  It  suffices  for  me  that  I  like 
billiards,  and  the  attainment  of  the  pleasure  given  I  regard 

15 


226  riNISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY,  [1870. 

as  a  suflBcient  motive.  I  have  for  a  long  time  deliberately 
Bet  my  face  against  that  asceticism  which  makes  it  an 
offence  to  do  a  thing  for  the  pleasure  of  doing  it ;  and  have 
habitually  contended  that^  so  long  as  no  injury  is  inflicted 
on  others,  nor  any  ulterior  injury  on  self,  and  so  long  aa 
the  various  duties  of  life  have  been  discharged,  the  pursuit 
of  pleasure  for  its  own  sake  is  perfectly  legitimate  and 
requires  no  apology.  The  opposite  view  is  nothing  else 
than  a  remote  sequence  of  the  old  devil-worship  of  the 
barbarian;  who  sought  to  please  his  god  by  inflicting  pains 
on  himself,  and  believed  his  god  would  be  angry  if  he 
made  himself  happy. 

Beyond  these  habitual  occupations  at  the  Club  there 
were  chattings  with  my  old  friends,  most  of  whom  were 
members,  and  less  frequent  conversations  with  friends 
newly  made;  for  I  am  slow  to  make  fresh  friendships. 
And  then  as  the  evening  was  approaching  there  was  the 
walk  back  to  Queen's  Gardens,  bringing  me  there  in  time 
for  dinner  at  7 ;  which  was  followed  by  such  miscellaneous 
ways  of  passing  the  time  without  excitement  aa  were 
available.     Thus  passed  my  ordinary  days. 

The  close  of  1870,  and  the  first  four  months  of  1871, 
furnish  no  incidents  calling  for  mention.  Such  quotable 
passages  as  occur  in  correspondence  concern  other  persons 
in  ways  which  make  it  undesirable  to  reproduce  them :  one 
only  excepted,  which  will  come  more  conveniently  in  a 
future  chapter.  The  first  letter  from  which  I  may  here 
fitly  extract,  is  one  dated  11th  May. 

"  It  is  also  pleasant  news  to  me  that  you  are  likely  to  come  over  shortly. 
What  time  in  June  are  you  likely  to  come  ?  I  shall  probably  be  away  for  a 
fortnight  during  the  latter  half  of  June,  but  shall  be  in  town  during  July.  .  . 
"  About  a  week  ago,  I  received  the  French  translation  of  First  Principles. 
It  contains  an  introduction  by  Dr.  Gazelles  which  is  admirably  done,  and  is 
perfectly  fitted  to  give  the  uninitiated  a  general  preliminary  conception.  It 
is  just  the  thing  of  which  I  have  long  felt  the  need  ;  and  it  could  not  have 
been  better  supplied  than  by  a  Rympathetic  Frenchman.    A  translation  of  it 


Mt.  50.]      rmiSHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  227 

vxmld  he  immensely  serviceable  ;  but  I  cannot  well  have  it  made  here.     I  have 
ordered  a  copy  from  Paris  and  will  forward  it  to  you  as  soon  as  it  comes." 

Of  the  two  foregoing  paragraphs  tlie  first  introduces  a 
matter  of  considerable  general  interest.  At  the  time  it 
was  written  I  did  not  know  that  which  I  soon  afterwards 
learned — the  motive  of  my  American  friend  in  coming 
over.  He  was  fertile  in  useful  projects ;  and  the  project 
which  now  occupied  his  thoughts  was  one  in  pursuance  of 
which  English,  American,  French,  German,  and  other 
authors,  who  undertook  to  write  works  of  a  certain  class, 
should,  by  agreement  among  the  publishers  in  their 
respective  countries,  have  certain  specified  rates  of  profit 
secured  to  them  in  all  these  countries.  I  gladly  did  all 
that  I  was  able  in  furtherance  of  his  scheme.  One  step 
taken  was  to  give  him  a  letter  of  introduction  which  should 
serve  to  facilitate  his  negotiations  with  authors  and  pub- 
lishers over  here.  This  it  will  be  not  amiss  to  quote  in  full. 
Mt  deab  Youmans.  "  4  July.  1871, 

I  am  desirous  to  do  all  that  is  possible  to  extend  and  establish  the  arrange- 
ments you  are  making  with  English  authors — arrangements  which  practically 
amount  to  international  copyright. 

' '  Having  for  the  last  ten  years  benefited  so  greatly  by  the  arrangements  you 
have  made  with  the  Appletons  on  my  behalf,  which  have  put  me  on  a  footing 
as  good  as  that  of  the  American  author,  I  have  the  best  possible  reasons  for 
thinking  that  the  interests  of  English  authors  will  be  subserved  in  a  very 
important  degree  by  the  success  of  the  negociations  which  you  have  come 
over  here  to  carry  out.  Various  of  my  scientific  friends,  who  have  reaped 
pecuniary  and  other  advantages  from  the  contracts  you  have  made  for  them, 
will,  I  am  sure,  coincide  in  this  expression  of  opinion. 

' '  From  the  conversation  I  had  with  Mr.  Appleton  when  he  was  here  recently, 
it  was  manifest  to  me  that  he  was  anxious  to  carry  out  in  his  relations  with 
other  English  authors,  the  same  equitable  system  from  which  I,  and  some 
others,  have  gained.  And  now  that  he  has  given  you  full  powers  to  make 
engagements  in  pursuance  of  this  system,  I  think  it  very  desirable  that  all 
should  co-operate.  Standing  so  high  as  the  Appletons  do,  alike  in  respect 
to  the  character  of  the  works  they  publish  and  in  the  extent  of  their  business, 
it  appears  to  me  clear  that  this  system  which  they  are  adopting  needs  only  to 
be  known  and  understood  by  English  authors  to  be  at  once  accepted  by  them. 
"  Pray  make  use  of  this  letter  in  any  way  that  will  furtlier  your  negociations. 

Ever  yours  sincerely, 

HekBEKT   Si'ENCEK." 

The   movement   thus   initiated  was  one  which  presently 

15* 


228  FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  [1870. 

issued  in  "  The  International  Scientific  Series,"  of  which 
more  anon. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  late  concerning  my  social  life  in 
these  days,  and  now  that  I  recur  to  the  topic,  I  find  little 
to  say. 

I  suppose  it  has  been  more  from  inclination  than  from 
principle  that  I  have  avoided  acquaintanceships  and  culti- 
vated only  friendships.  There  is  in  me  very  little  of  the 
hesoin  de  parler;  and  hence  I  do  not  care  to  talk  with  those 
in  whom  I  feel  no  interest.  Having  neither  professional 
interests  to  push,  nor  daughters  to  marry,  and  not  caring 
to  show  Mrs.  Grundy  how  many  people  I  know,  I  have  had 
no  motive  for  multiplying  social  relations.  I  have  thua 
avoided  the  weariness  of  "the  social  treadmill."  My  circle, 
limited  to  those  whose  natures  are  more  or  less  attractive 
to  me,  has  ever  yielded  me  pleasure,  and  brought  to  me 
quite  as  much  intercourse  as  I  desired — often  too  much, 
in  fact. 

Of  special  incidents  belonging  to  social  life  which  dwell 
in  my  memory  two  belong  to  this  year.  One  of  them  was 
a  water-party  on  the  anniversary  of  the  marriage  of  Mr. 
Leslie  Stephen  to  the  younger  Miss  Thackeray — a  party 
including  the  elder  Miss  Thackeray  (now  Mrs.  Ritchie) 
whose  nature,  answering  to  her  father's  estimate,  some- 
times expressed  its  amiabilities  in  amusing  "  verbal 
fireworks,"  as  I  once  heard  a  lady  call  them.  Some  of 
the  Huth  family  were  of  the  party ;  and  also  a  son  and 
daughter  of  Sir  William  Grove.  Thames  Ditton  was  our 
picnicing  place ;  and  taking  again  to  our  boats,  which 
carried  us  to  Hampton  Court,  we  there  of  course  went 
the  round  of  the  galleries.  Although  I  do  not  remember 
it,  I  doubtless  seized  the  occasion  for  uttering  heresies 
concerning  Raphael's  cartoons. 

As,  in  foregoing  chapters,  I  have  implied  sundry  tastes 
and  pursuits  incongruous  with  the  popular  conception  of 


JET.  50.]     riNISHTNG  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  229 

the  philosopher,  I  shall  not,  I  suppose,  surprise  the  reader 
by  indicating  another.  In  October  I  went  down  for  some 
pheasant  shooting  to  Wykehurst — an  estate  in  Sussex  not 
long  before  purchased  by  Mr.  Henry  Huth,  and  on  which 
a  few  years  later  he  built  the  palatial  mansion  now  existing 
there.  Save  once,  at  Ardtornish,  when  I  utterly  failed  in 
black-cock  shooting,  I  had  not  taken  a  gun  in  hand  since 
I  was  18;  and  now,  though  I  was  to  my  own  extreme 
surprise,  and  to  the  surprise  of  others,  very  successful,  the 
sport  gave  me  scarcely  any  pleasure.  I  preferred  hitting 
to  missing,  and  that  was  about  all.  I  suppose  it  was  that 
the  hattue  system,  or  whatever  approaches  to  it,  lacks  the 
chief  elements  of  the  sportsman^s  pleasure.  Essentially 
this,  like  the  pleasures  accompanying  many  other  activities, 
consists  in  justified  self-estimation.  Be  it  in  a  feat  of 
strength,  or  a  game  of  physical  or  mental  skill,  or  a  wit 
combat,  the  satisfaction  of  success  is  caused  by  proved 
adequacy  to  the  occasion.  Consciousness  of  efiiciency  is  an 
accompaniment  of  every  kind  of  achievement ;  and,  accom- 
panying life-subserving  activities  of  every  kind,  has  roots 
ramifying  everywhere.  Hence  whatever  implies  efficiency 
becomes  a  source  of  pleasure:  directly  and  simply  if  known 
to  self  only,  and  also  indirectly  and  more  complexly  if 
known  to  others  too.  In  such  a  sport  as  cover-shooting 
with  beaters,  the  efficiency  is  simply  that  of  hitting  a 
moving  mark — divested  of  all  those  efficiencies  which  go 
along  with  the  successful  pursuit  of  scattered  birds  in  a 
wild  state.  Hence,  except  where  there  is  a  love  of  killing 
for  its  own  sake,  it  yields  but  little  pleasure. 

In  the  early  months  of  1871,  suddenly  passed  away  my 
admired  and  valued  friend  Mr.  Octavius  Smith.  Though 
of  good  age,  he  was  constitutionally  vigorous  and  might 
have  lived  many  years  but  for  the  results  of  an  accident. 
He  exemplified  the  truth  that  where  great  physical  vigour 
and  mental  resource  yield  daily  experience  of  efficiency  on 


230  FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  [1871. 

all  occasions  there  is  apt  to  be  generated  an  excessive 
degree  of  courage.  Many  years  before  lie  had  suffered 
serious  damage  from  incaution  hence  arising ;  and  now,  or 
rather  a  few  years  previously,  an  accident  to  which  the 
same  trait  led,  left  a  slight  invisible  injury  which  obviously 
originated  the  malady  that  proved  fatal.  Among  my 
friends  of  the  preceding  generation  his  death  made  a  great 
gap — a  gap  impossible  to  be  filled  up. 

The  autumn  of  this  year  was  passed  in  a  miscellaneous 
way.  First  came  a  short  salmon-fishing  expedition  to 
Inveroran.  Thence,  when  the  British  Association  met 
about  its  usual  date,  I  migrated  to  its  place  of  meeting — 
Edinburgh.  This  time  the  prompting  motive  was  not  that 
of  being  present  during  the  presidency  of  one  of  my 
friends.  The  motive  was  that  of  aiding  Prof.  Youmans 
in  his  project  mentioned  above.  Sundry  steps  were  taken 
which  conduced  to  its  success.  Profs.  Huxley  and  Tyndall 
and  myself  were  formed  into  a  Committee  to  decide  on 
books  which  should  be  admitted  into  the  series;  and 
whether,  with  this  or  that  author,  an  engagement  should  be 
made  to  write  one.  Sundry  members  of  the  Association 
were  canvassed  with  the  view  of  obtaining  promises  from 
them  to  contribute  volumes  connected  with  their  special 
subjects :  the  purpose  being  that  each  of  such  volumes 
should  be  one  dealing  with  some  part  of  a  science  capable 
of  being  cut  out  from  the  rest,  and  within  the  limits  of 
which  there  had  been  recent  developments  of  importance . 
The  consultations  and  negotiations  went  on  favourably,  and 
by  the  time  that  the  meeting  closed  the  scheme  had  taken 
definite  shape  and  organization. 

A  house  at  St.  Andrews  had  been  taken  by  the  Huxleys 
for  the  Autumn,  and  this  led  me  to  go  over  to  an  hotel 
there  for  two  or  three  days.  Two  things  only  I  remember 
— the  one  that  Huxley  and  I  played  together  a  game  of 
golf,  the  only  game  I  ever  played ;  the  other  that,  while 
sitting    on    the    cliff    watching    some    boys    bathing,    we 


Mt.  51.]     FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  231 

marvelled  over  the  fact,  seeming  especially  strange  when 
they  are  no  longer  disguised  by  clothes,  that  human  beings 
should  dominate  over  all  other  creatures  and  play  the 
wonderful  part  they  do  on  the  Earth. 

On  leaving  St.  Andrews  I  met,  in  pursuance  of  an 
agreement  made  at  Edinburgh,  one  whom  I  have  not 
hitherto  named  —  Dr.  Hirst,  a  special  friend  of  Prof. 
Tyndall  since  their  early  days.  Originally  engaged  on  the 
Ordnance  Survey,  they  left  it  for  the  purpose  of  going 
together  to  the  University  of  Marburg;  whence,  after 
taking  their  degrees,  they  went  to  Queenwood  College  as 
professors;  and  whence,  afterwards,  they  migrated  to 
London :  Tyndall  to  the  Royal  Institution,  as  Faraday's 
assistant  and  presently  his  successor,  and  Hirst  to  Uni- 
versity College  as  Professor  of  Mathematics ;  which  post 
he  held  until  he  became  Deputy  Registrar  of  the  University 
of  London,  on  the  way  to  his  ultimate  position  as  the  first 
Director  of  Studies  at  the  Royal  Naval  College,  Greenwich. 

Our  tour  into  the  West  Highlands  proved  in  all  respects 
a  success.  Days  were  passed  at  Oban,  at  Ballachulish,  and 
at  Fort  William  :  our  stay  at  this  last  place  being  varied  by 
an  exploration  of  Glen  Nevis  up  to  its  top,  where  it  becomes 
Swiss-like  in  character.  While  at  Bannavie  a  dog-cart 
took  us  to  Glen  Roy,  up  which  we  rambled  to  explore 
the  parallel  roads,  and  to  discuss  the  speculations  respect- 
ing their  origin.  On  our  return  south,  I  remember  only 
the  sunny  day  which  gave  beauty  to  our  walk  along  the 
shore  of  Loch  Linnhe  from  Ballachulish  to  Appin.  And  then 
there  came  a  junction  with  our  common  friends  the  Busks^ 
who  had  again  taken  Aird's  Bay  House  on  Loch  Etive. 

Two  breaks  in  the  routine  of  my  ordinary  work  occurred 
soon  after  I  resumed  it.  One  of  them  was  entailed  by  the 
scheme  of  my  American  friend,  and  the  other  by  a  con- 
troversy upon  which  I  had  to  enter. 

Arrangements  for  the  proposed  "  International  Scientific 


232  FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  [1871. 

Series"  had  to  be  made  in  France;  and  I  agreed  to  go  with 
Youmans  to  Paris  for  the  purpose  of  helping  to  establish 
them.  He  knew  no  French,  and  though  my  French  was 
scrambling  enough,  it  sufficed  to  give  M.  Bailliere  the 
needful  explanations,  and  to  make  it  manifest  to  him  that 
it  would  be  worth  his  while  to  become  the  French  publisher 
for  the  Series.  There  was  also  formed  a  French  Committee 
of  judges,  who  should  decide  upon  such  works  as  French- 
men might  propose ;  and  various  other  matters  were  put  in 
train  before  he  went  on  to  Germany  and  I  returned  home. 

While  still  in  Paris  I  entered  upon  the  piece  of  contro- 
versial writing  which  Fate  had  just  then  devolved  on  mo  : 
Youmans  volunteering  as  amanuensis.  The  Fortnightly 
Review  for  November  1871  contained  an  article  by  Prof. 
Huxley  entitled  "Administrative  Nihilism,"  in  which, 
criticising  a  view  of  mine  respecting  the  limitation  of 
State-functions,  he  put  his  objection  in  the  form  of  a 
question.  I  could  scarcely  avoid  giving  an  answer;  for 
otherwise  the  implication  would  apparently  have  been  that 
the  question  was  unanswerable.  Commenced,  as  above 
stated,  in  Paris,  and  completed  after  my  return  to  London, 
my  reply  appeared  in  the  December  number  of  the  Fort- 
nightly, under  the  title  of  "  Specialized  Administration." 

This  passage  of  arms  was  carried  on  in  a  perfectly  ami- 
cable spirit,  and  left  the  relations  between  us  undisturbed. 

Before   the   close   of    the  year   came   two   occurrences 
of  some  interest,  one  of  them  leading  to  the  other.     The 
first  is  explained  in  the  following  letter  to  the  Principal  of 
St.  Andrews. 
Dkaj;  Dr.  Tulloch,  "  20th  Novr.  1871. 

Only  on  Friday  night  did  I  hear,  and  only  on  Saturday  morning  did  I 
see,  [in  the  Times^  that  I  had  been  nominated  for  the  office  of  Rector  of . 
St.  Andrews. 

"  I  regret  that  some  intimation  was  not  given  to  me  beforehand  that  such 
a  step  was  contemplated  ;  because  some  trouble,  and  possibly  some  derange- 
ment of  plans,  might  thus  have  been  prevented. 
"  To  accept  such  a  post,  Avere  I  elected  to  it,  would  entail  on  mc  a  loss  of 


^T.  51.]     FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  233 

time  which,  though  not  serious  to  most,  would  be  serious  to  me,  with  my 
very  small  amount  of  working  power.  My  progress  with  my  work,  slow 
enough  at  the  best,  is  inteiTupted  much  more  frequently  than  I  like ;  and 
I  find  myself  compelled  rigorously  to  negative  such  interruptions  aa 
are  not  unavoidable.  Though,  in  the  position  which  some  of  the  St. 
Andrew's  students  wish  me  to  occupy,  I  might  be  of  some  little  service,  yet  I 
think  I  can  render  better  service  by  devoting  the  same  amount  of  energy  to 
executing  the  task  before  me. 

"  In  conveying  to  those  who  have  put  forward  my  name  the  request  that 
they  will  withdraw  it  from  the  list,  will  you  be  kind  enough  also  to  say  that 
I  am  much  gratified  by  the  sympathetic  appreciation  implied  by  the  course 
they  have  taken. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Hekbert  Spenceb." 

I  may  add  that  the  students,  signifying  their  disap- 
pointment at  the  time,  signified  it  afterwards  still  more 
by  again  asking  me  in  March  of  the  next  year :  the 
preceding  election  having  proved  invalid.  But  the  reasons 
given  for  declining  upon  the  first  occasion  remained  in 
force,  and  I  again  declined. 

This  incident  in  November  initiated  another  before  the 
close  of  December.  There  came  an  intimation,  conveyed 
through  Professor  Flint,  that  the  Senatus  contemplated 
conferring  upon  me  an  honorary  degree.  As  my  reply 
contains  some  general  opinions  respecting  honorary 
degrees,  which  I  think  it  desirable  to  put  on  record, 
I  here  give  it  in  full. 

"  Sib,  Beer.  1871. 

I  cannot  but  be  much  gratified  by  the  fact  of  which  you  inform  me — 
that  "  the  professors  of  the  United  College  of  St.  Andrews  have  unanimously 
agreed  to  recommend  to  the  Senatus  of  the  University  to  confer  upon  "  me 
"  the  Degree  of  LL.D."  The  remembrance  of  this  mark  of  their  considera- 
tion wiU  hereafter  give  me  pleasure. 

"  Certain  convictions  which  have  been  long  growing  up  in  me,  respecting 
the  effects  of  honorary  titles,  will,  however,  I  fear,  stand  in  the  way  of  my 
acceptance  of  the  degree  which  the  Professors  kindly  suggest  should  be 
conferred  upon  me.  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  such  honorary 
titles,  while  they  seem  to  be  encouragements  to  intellectual  achievement,  do 
in  reality,  by  their  indirect  influences,  act  as  discouragements. 
"  If,  supposing  due  discrimination  were  possible,  men  of  much  promise 
received  from  a  learned  body  such  marks  of  distinction  as  would  bespeak 
attention  from  the  world  at  large,  I  can  well  imagine  that  such  men  would  be 


234  FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  [1872. 

greatly  helped,  and  •would  oftentimes  be  saved  from  sinking  in  their  strugglea 
with  adverse  circumstances  in  the  midst  of  a  society  prepossessed  in  favour 
of  known  men.  But  there  ordinarily  comes  no  such  aid  until  the  difficulties 
have  been  surmounted — supposing,  that  is,  that  they  have  not  proved  fatal. 
"  Probably  it  will  be  said  that  because  honorary  titles  do  not  commonly 
yield  benefits  so  great  as  they  might  yield  if  given  earlier,  it  does  not  there- 
fore follow  that  when  given  they  are  otherwise  than  beneficial.  I  think, 
however,  that  if,  instead  of  considering  their  direct  effects  on  those  older 
men  who  have  received  them,  we  consider  their  indirect  effects  on  those 
younger  men  who  have  not  received  them,  we  shall  see  that  to  these  they 
become,  practically,  an  additional  obstacle  to  success.  Always  the  impedi- 
ments in  the  way  of  one  who,  without  authority,  enters  the  field  of 
intellectual  activity,  in  competition  with  those  having  established  authorities, 
are  sufficiently  great.  The  probability  that  he  has  nothing  to  say  worth 
listening  to,  is  so  strong,  that  he  is  almost  certain  to  receive  for  a  long  time 
scarcely  any  of  the  attention  he  may  well  deserve.  But  this  unavoidable 
difficulty  is  made  artificially  greater  when,  bearing  no  stamp  of  value,  he 
has  for  competitors  those  who,  to  the  advantages  of  known  achievements,  add 
the  advantage  of  officially-stamped  values.  The  larger  reading  world,  and 
the  narrower  critical  world  which  leads  it,  are  greatly  biassed  by  whatever 
bespeaks  respectful  consideration.  And  if  the  presence  of  an  honorary  title 
gives  this  positive  advantage  to  one  bearing  it,  its  absence  involves  a  positive 
disadvantage  to  one  not  bearing  it. 

' '  This  conclusion  is  not  one  reached  a  priori ;  but  it  is  one  that  personal 
experiences  have  forced  upon  me.  During  a  career  of  more  than  twenty 
years,  most  of  which  has  been  passed  in  writing  books  that  entailed  on  me 
successive  losses,  I  have  had  many  opportunities  of  observing  this  artificial 
aid  given  by  honorary  titles  to  those  who  least  needed  aid,  and  the  conse- 
quent artificial  hindrance  to  those  without  titles  who  most  needed  aid.  And 
it  has  come  to  be  an  established  belief  with  me  that  the  advance  of  thought 
will  be  most  furthered,  when  the  only  honours  to  be  acquired  by  authors  are 
those  spontaneously  yielded  to  them  by  a  public  which  is  left  to  estimate 
their  merits  as  well  as  it  can. 

"  It  would  be  a  source  of  much  regret  to  me  if  this  response  to  the  sympa- 
thetic recognition  which  the  Professors  of  St.  Andrew's  imply  by  their 
proposed  step,  were  interpreted  as  undervaluing  the  feeling  shown  by 
them.  But  I  hope  that  what  I  have  said  will  make  it  clear  that  my 
course  is  one  determined  by  a  general  principle,  entirely  without  reference 
to  the  particular  circumstances,"  etc.  etc. 

To  save  references  to  them  in  future  chapters,  I  may  add 

here  that  on  various  kindred  occasions  I  took  the  like  course: 

assigning  these  and  sundry  other  reasons  for  declining. 

A  letter  of  8th  Jan.  1872,  saying  "  I  was  better  for  my 


^T.  52.]     FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  235 

excursion  to  the  Isle  of  Wight,"  reminds  me  that  the 
Christmas  week  of  1871  was  spent  in  company  with  my 
friends  Busk  and  Allman  in  walking  and  driving  round  the 
south  coast  from  St.  Helens  to  Yarmouth.  Of  incidents 
during  the  season  of  1872,  the  following  extracts  from 
correspondence  give  some  traces.  The  first  is  dated 
2nd  Feb. 

"  Haeckel's  assistant,  of  whom  he  speaks  highly,  a  Dr.  Vetter,  has  under- 
taken to  translate  First  PrincipUs,  and  proposes  afterwards  to  translate  the 
Biology  and  the  Psychology.  It  seems  that  Brockhaus  hesitates  about 
undertaking  the  publication ;  but  Haeckel  speaks  as  though  there  will  be  no 
difficulty  in  finding  another  publisher,  if  Brockhaus  should  not  shortly 
agree  .  .  .  We  had  an  X  dinner  last  night  at  which  Lowe  was  our 
guest.     He  takes  an  intelligent  interest  in  scientific  matters." 

Correspondence  also  recalls  the  fact  that  when  over  here 
in  1871,  my  American  publisher,  Mr.  Appleton,  had  asked 
me  to  sit  for  a  portrait  to  be  painted  for  him,  and  presented 
to  some  institution  in  New  York  City.  As  he  left  me 
to  choose  the  artist,  I  assented ;  and  some  progress  was 
made  during  the  Autumn.  A  letter  of  8th  April  1872 
says : — 

"  The  portrait  has  been  standing  still  up  to  the  present  time.  Since  his 
return  from  Spain,  Burgess  has  had  scarlet  fever  in  his  house.  I  am  going 
to  day  to  give  him  a  sitting  "... 

My  reasons  for  fixing  on  Mr.  J.  B.  Burgess,  were  two. 
One  was  that  he  was  not  a  professed  portrait  painter :  my 
impression  being  that  he  would  feel  more  interest,  and 
take  more  pains,  than  an  artist  who  had  made  portrait 
painting  his  business.  The  other  was  that  he  had  shown 
a  remarkable  power  of  rendering  expression.  A  picture 
of  his,  entitled  "Bravo  Tore,"  exhibited  in  the  Koyal 
Academy  some  years  before,  and  representing  spectators  at 
a  Spanish  bull-fight,  had  greatly  struck  me  by  its  truthful 
and  varied  representations  of  character  and  emotion.  No 
picture  by  an  old  master  which  I  have  seen  or  heard  of, 
exhibits  this  kind  of  success  in  anything  like  as  great 
degree.  His  artist  friends  told  Mr.  Burgess  that  success 
of  this  kind  was  not  to  be  aimed  at — was  not  an  element 


236  FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  [1872. 

in  higli  art.  To  me  it  seemSj  contrariwise,  that  such 
success  is  the  highest.  I  know  a  novelist,  skilful  in 
devising  plots,  who  holds  that  a  good  story  is  the  thing, 
if  not  of  sole  importance,  still  of  chief  importance,  in 
fiction ;  and  who  accords  small  praise  to  characterization, 
and  the  delineation  of  those  lights  and  shades  of  thought 
and  feeling  which  give  individuality  :  components  that 
are,  in  fact,  the  flowers  to  which  the  story  is  but  the  stem. 
I  would  as  soon  believe  him  as  I  would  believe  these 
artists  who  pooh-pooh  the  vivid  portrayal  of  moral 
natures  and  states  of  mind  in  the  faces  of  the  personages 
they  represent. 

"1  have  been  away  at  Boulogne,"  says  a  letter  of 
June  12;  and  now  that  I  meet  with  this  sentence,  I 
remember  that  my  old  engineering  friend.  Loch,  whose 
name  has  for  a  long  time  disappeared  from  the  record,  was 
staying  there  with  his  wife  and  family,  and  that  to  join 
him  was  the  motive  for  going.  He  and  I  renewed  our 
habit  of  early  years,  and  took  country  rambles  inland  and 
along  the  coast.  One  of  them  left  a  permanent  impression. 
We  passed  a  wayside  shrine,  at  the  foot  of  which  were 
numerous  offerings,  each  formed  of  two  bits  of  lath  nailed 
one  across  the  other.  The  sight  suggested  to  me  the 
behaviour  of  an  intelligent  and  amiable  retriever,  a  great 
pet  at  Ardtornish.  On  coming  up  to  salute  one  after  a  few 
hours^  or  a  day's  absence,  wagging  her  tail  and  drawing 
back  her  lips  so  as  to  simulate  a  grinning  smile,  she  would 
seek  around  to  find  a  stick,  or  a  bit  of  paper,  or  a  dead 
leaf,  and  bring  it  in  her  mouth  :  so  expressing  her  desire 
to  propitiate.  The  dead  leaf  or  bit  of  paper  was  symbolic, 
in  much  the  same  way  as  was  the  valueless  cross. 
Probably,  in  respect  of  sincerity  of  feeling,  the  advantage 
was  on  the  side  of  the  retriever. 

Though  I  had  arranged  to  go  abroad  with  friends  for 
my  autumn  holiday,  yet  my  habit   of   visiting  Scotland 


^T.  52.]     FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  237 

annually  was  too  strong  to  be  resisted.  The  beginning  of 
August  found  me  at  Taynuilt,  where  I  went  for  some  salmon 
fishing  in  the  Awe.  But  the  weather  was  dry,  the  river 
low,  the  days  bright,  and  after  a  week  of  disappointments 
I  returned. 

An  excursion  to  Switzerland  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Busk 
and  their  daughters  shortly  followed.  After  brief  pauses  at 
Cologne,  Heidelberg,  and  Berne,  we  made  our  way  to 
Miirren,  where  a  week  or  perhaps  more  was  spent  in  face  of 
the  Jungfrau  and  the  Silberhorn.  No  more  on  this  occasion 
than  on  the  first,  did  I  find  Switzerland  physically  benefi- 
cial. On  neither  occasion  did  I  experience  the  invigoration 
which  many  feel;  and  Miirren  was  positively  enervating. 

There  is  much  yet  to  be  learnt  respecting  the  effects  of 
atmospheric  conditions.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  with 
these  as,  according  to  a  physician  I  quoted  some  distance 
back,  it  is  with  drugs :  cases  prove  that  under  different 
conditions  they  may  produce  opposite  effects.  Certainly, 
the  air  of  great  altitudes,  which  is  exhilarating  to  some,  is 
depressing  to  others.  I  was  not  alone  in  feeling  the  ill 
effects  of  Miirren.  Two  of  the  ladies  furnished  clear 
proofs  of  enfeeblement.  Evidently  that  state  of  exhaustion 
which  the  rarified  air  of  very  high  mountains  causes 
in  all,  begins  to  be  felt  by  a  few  on  lower  mountains. 
The  decrease  of  atmospheric  pressure  accompanying  an 
ascent  of  6000  feet,  produces  on  the  respiratory  process 
effects  which,  not  manifest  in  some,  are  conspicuous  in 
others.  May  it  not  be  that  two  factors  which  come  into  play, 
work,  by  their  joint  actions,  diverse  results  in  diverse 
constitutions  ?  Diminished  atmospheric  pressure  causes 
augmented  exhalation  from  the  skin  and  lungs  :  water 
turns  into  vapour  more  rapidly.  One  of  the  consequences 
is  that  the  currents  of  liquids  through  the  tissues  are 
accelerated;  change  of  matter  is  furthered  ;  and  exaltation 
of  energy  results.  At  the  same  time  the  charge  of  oxygen 
which  the  blood  contains  is  lessened,  and  greater  action  of 


238  FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  [1872. 

the  lungs  is  required  to  compensate  for  this.  If  the  lungs 
are  well  developed^  a  small  amount  of  extra  activity 
enables  them  to  meet  the  requirement,  and  then  the  benefit 
of  a  more  rapid  evaporation  of  water  is  felt.  If,  contrari- 
wise, the  respiratory  system  is  below  par,  then  more  is  lost 
by  decreased  oxygenation  than  is  gained  by  increased 
evaporation. 

While  the  heights  of  Switzerland  were  not  favourable  to 
me,  neither  were  the  depths.  Our  descent  to  Grindelwald 
was  not  followed  by  any  improvement,  but  rather  the 
contrary.  After  a  few  days  it  became  evident  that  I 
must  escape  into  the  open  country.  Bidding  good-bye  to 
my  friends,  I  made  my  way  to  Yevay;  and  after  a  few  days 
at  St.  Evian  les  Bains,  and  a  few  others  at  Geneva,  I 
reached  home  a  week  before  the  end  of  September. 

Not  long  after  my  return  was  published  Mr.  Darwin's 
work  on  The  Expression  of  the  Emotions.  As  my  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  copy  he  was  good  enough  to  send  me 
contains  some  expressions  of  opinion  concerning  a  point  on 
which  v/e  differed,  it  may  be  not  amiss  to  quote  it  here. 
Deae  Daewik,  "  Nov.  16th,  1872. 

I  have  delayed,  somewhat  longer  than  I  intended,  acknowledging  the 
copy  of  your  new  volume,  which  you  have  been  kind  enough  to  send  me.  I 
delayed  partly  in  the  hope  of  being  able  to  read  more  of  it  before  writing 
to  you ;  but  my  reading  powers  are  so  small,  and  they  are  at  present  so 
much  employed  in  getting  up  materials  for  work  in  hand,  that  I  have  been 
unable  to  get  on  far  with  it.  I  have,  however,  read  quite  enough  to  see 
what  an  immense  mass  of  evidence  you  have  brought  to  bear  in  proof  of 
your  propositions. 

"  I  will  comment  only  on  one  point  on  which  I  see  you  differ  from  me; 
namely  the  explanation  of  musical  expression,  in  respect  of  which  you  quote 
Mr.  Litchfield.  I  think  if  you  would  trace  up  the  genesis  of  melody, 
beginning  with  the  cadences  of  slightly  emotional  speech  and  passing  through 
recitative,  you  would  see  that  melody  is  quite  comprehensible  on  the 
principles  I  have  pointed  out.  The  fact  that  melody  proper,  has  been 
evolved  in  comparatively  recent  times,  is  strong  evidence  of  this.  That 
recitative  is  a  natural  expression  of  emotion  is  abundantly  proved.  I 
remember  having  read  of  Australians  who  used  a  kind  of  recitative  in 
talking  to  themselves  when  walking  along,  about  things  that  interested 


JEt.  52.]     FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  239 

them ;  and  I  have  heard  children,  when  engaged  in  any  play  that  interesteu 
them,  or  such  occupations  as  gathering  flowers,  talk  to  themselves  in 
recitative.  Join  this  with  the  fact  that  many  inferior  races  have  never 
risen  above  recitative  (as  the  Chinese  and  Hindoos)  and  that  there  is  reason 
for  believing  that  even  among  the  Greeks,  melody  had  not  become  so 
markedly  different  from  recitative  as  now, — add,  too,  the  fact  that  even  now 
in  the  Highlands  you  may  hear  Gaelic  songs  that  retain  very  much  of  the 
recitative  character;  and  I  think  you  will  see  that  melody  is,  as  I  have 
contended,  an  idealized  form  of  the  natural  cadences  of  emotion.  Indeed 
I  could  point  out  musical  phrases  which  would,  I  think,  clearly  prove  this 
to  you.  Ask  your  daughter  to  play  to  you  "Robert  toi  que  faivie"  and 
you  will  I  think  see  this.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  this  is  all;  for 
there  are  other  elements  of  effect  in  melody.  But  this  is,  I  think,  the 
cardinal  element. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Heebert  Spencer." 

I  have  long  intended  to  add  to  the  essay  on  the  Origin 
and  Function  of  Music,  a  postscript  dealing  with  objections  : 
its  chief  purposes  being,  first,  to  dissipate  the  misapprehen- 
sions of  Mr.  Edmund  Gurney,  and  second,  to  criticize  the 
hypothesis  of  Mr.  Darwin.  But  I  do  not  suppose  that  I 
shall  now  ever  be  able  to  fulfil  my  intention. 

Shortly  before  the  date  of  the  above  letter  (which  I  have 
transposed  for  convenience)  came  the  completion  and 
publication  of  the  volume  to  which  this  chapter  owes  its 
title.     I  have  not  very  much  to  say  concerning  it. 

Beyond  the  verbal  improvements  made  on  nearly  all  the 
pages  throughout  part  VI,  "Special  Analysis,"  not  many 
changes  were  made.  Only  one  of  them  calls  for  mention 
here,  namely,  the  enunciation  of  the  paradox  that  Logic  is 
a  science  of  objective  phenomena,  and  not  a  science  of 
subjective  phenomena,  as  hitherto  assumed.  The  proof  as 
given  in  §  302,  still  appears  to  me  conclusive.  Save  one 
writer  in  Mind,  who  expressed  his  surprise  that  no  attention 
had  been  given  to  it,  everybody  has,  so  far  as  I  know, 
passed  by  this  revolutionary  doctrine  without  remark.  It 
ehould,  I  think,  be  either  disproved  or  admitted;  for  clearly 
the  issues  involved  are  of  some  philosophical  importance. 


240  FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  [1872. 

Does  not  one  of  them  toucli  fundamentally  the  entire 
system  of  Hegel  ?  I  express  the  thought  interrogatively, 
because  I  know  so  little  of  the  Hegelian  philosophy. 
My  impression  is  that  it  sets  out  with  a  proposition 
impossible  to  conceive.  If  this  proceeding  is  legitimate^  it 
is  no  less  legitimate  to  make  each  step  in  the  reasoning 
that  follows,  of  like  nature ;  and  to  assert  that  though  a 
particular  conclusion  appears  necessary,  and  the  opposite 
conclusion  impossible  to  conceive,  yet  the  opposite  con- 
clusion is  true.  As  this  course,  actual  and  potential,  is  one 
against  which  I  feel  an  obstinate  prejudice,  I  never  read 
further  any  work  in  which  it  is  displayed.  But  I  wish  some 
one  would  put  the  proposition  that  Logic  is  an  objective 
science,  side  by  side  with  the  Hegelian  philosophy,  and  see 
whether  the  two  can  co-exist. 

Concerning  Part  VII,  I  may  here  remark  that  the 
elaboration  of  it  illustrated  in  an  extreme  degree  a  habit 
of  thought  which  I  have  before  described.  The  germ  was 
contained  in  the  essay  on  the  "  Universal  Postulate," 
published  in  the  Westminster  Review  for  October  1853.  In 
the  first  edition  of  The  Principles  of  Psychology,  this  essay 
grew  into  four  chapters;  and  now,  in  the  second  edition, 
its  thoughts  had  so  developed  in  various  ways  that  nineteen 
chapters  were  required  properly  to  set  them  forth.  How 
to  arrange  these  chapters  long  remained  a  perplexity.  For 
some  two  or  three  years,  I  think,  I  occasionally  thought 
over  the  general  argument  in  my  morning  walks  or  at  other 
times,  and  tried  to  find  the  right  order  for  its  parts,  but 
without  success.  Only  after  this  long  period  did  they 
slowly  gravitate  into  their  respective  places,  and  form 
a  coherent  whole. 

How  happened  it  that  the  volume  was  so  long  in  hand  : 
commenced,  as  it  was,  in  1870,  and  not  completed  till 
October  1872  ?  I  find  in  correspondence  various  references 
to  ill-health — being  obliged  to  work  only  at  "  half -speed," 
or  to  be  "very  careful  of  my  head."     While  the  delays 


^T.  52.]        FINISHING  THE  PSYCHOLOGY.  241 

hence  arising  partly  account  for  the  long  time  taken,  it  is 
also  in  part  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the  work  was 
interrupted  by  the  execution  of  other  work  presently  to  be 
mentioned.  But  I  was  nearly  forgetting  a  further  cause. 
The  volume  ended  with  an  additional  part  (Part  IX  "  Corol- 
laries") .  Psychology  underlies  Sociology;  and  there  had  to 
be  specified  a  number  of  those  more  special  truths  in 
Psychology  which  have  to  be  handed  on  to  Sociology  as 
part  of  its  data.  The  deduction  of  these  special  truths 
from  the  general  truths  set  forth  in  the  preceding  parts  of 
the  work,  was  an  interesting  task. 


16 


CHAPTER  XLIX. 

AN  EXTRA  BOOK. 

1872—73.    ^t.  52—53. 

Another  overlap  in  the  narrative,  like  two  already  made, 
has  to  be  made  here.  Without  causing  some  confusion,  I 
could  not,  until  now,  give  any  account  of  work  which  was 
undertaken  before  the  second  volume  of  the  Psychology  was 
finished;  and  which,  as  lately  implied,  was  one  cause  of  its 
long-postponed  publication.  Groing  back  some  six  months, 
I  must  here  say  something  about  an  extra  book  then 
commenced. 

"  Why  an  extra  book  ?"  thinks  the  reader.  "  Surely  the 
remaining  volumes  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy  formed  a 
sufficiently  large  task,  and  to  attempt  more  was  unwise,  if 
not,  indeed,  absurd."  This  reflection  is  perfectly  just,  and 
I  have  nothing  to  say  in  mitigation  of  censure  save  that, 
though  very  reluctant,  I  was  in  a  manner  forced  to  commit 
myself  to  this  extra  book. 

I  have  already  described  the  scheme  of  Prof.  Youmans 
which  resulted  in  "The  International  Scientific  Series"; 
and  I  have  noted  some  efforts  I  made  in  aid  of  it.  In  the 
course  of  his  negotiations  with  one  or  other  author,  he  urged 
me  to  contribute  a  volume  to  the  series.  I  felt,  as  the 
reader  above  imagined  feels,  that  I  had  quite  enough  on 
my  hands,  and  for  some  time  resisted  the  suggestion.  But 
my  friend  was  pressing;  and,  being  under  great  obligations 
to  him  for  all  that  he  had  done  on  my  behalf  in  America,  I 
could  not  utter  that  decided  "'No"  which  I  should  have 


MT.5h]  AN  EXTRA  BOOK.  243 

uttered  to  any  one  else.  Eventually  I  yielded ;  not^  how- 
ever, "witliout  making  sucii  modification  of  the  engagement 
as  would,  I  thought,  enable  me  to  do  what  was  asked  without 
seriously  retarding  more  important  work.  It  occurred  to 
me  that  I  might  obtain  a  fit  collaborateur,  who  should  give 
literary  form  to  the  ideas  with  which  I  furnished  him.  It 
was  a  wild  notion,  to  be  excused  only  by  the  pressure  and 
hurry  which  prevented  deliberation.  Had  I  reflected,  I 
should  have  seen  that  no  one  could  be  found  who  would 
prove  adequately  subordinate  at  the  same  time  that  he 
had  sufficient  vigour  of  thought  and  style  to  satisfy  me. 
During  the  time  in  which  this  idea  was  entertained,  Mr. 
C.  E.  Appleton,  founder  and  editor  of  The  Academy,  came  to 
me  proposing  himself  as  joint  author;  and  it  was  his 
proposal  more  than  anything  else  which  opened  my  eyes  to 
the  impracticability  of  the  scheme.  I  foresaw  that  we 
should  disagree  and  part  over  the  first  chapter;  and  it 
became  clear  that  neither  anyone  else's  version  of  my 
thoughts  nor  anyone  else's  expression  of  them  would 
satisfy  me. 

Very  shortly,  therefore,  the  notion  of  collaboration  was 
abandoned,  and  I  undertook  to  do  the  entire  work  myself. 

Before  he  left  England  my  American  friend  volunteered 
to  arrange  for  the  carrying  out  of  a  suggestion  which  had 
arisen,  I  do  not  remember  how,  that  the  successive  chapters 
of  The  Study  of  Sociology — the  extra  book  in  question — 
should  be  first  published  serially,  in  England  and  America 
at  the  same  time.  Here  the  Contemporary  Review,  then 
owned  by  Mr.  Strahan  and  edited  by  Mr.  Knowles,  was  the 
contemplated  medium;  and  a  fit  medium  in  the  United 
States,  Prof.  Youmans  proposed  to  negotiate  with  as  soon 
as  possible  after  his  return.  With  this  explanation  the 
meanings  of  the  following  extracts  from  correspondence 
will  be  clear.  The  first  is  dated  8th  Jany.  1872. 
"  I  have,  as  I  proposed  before  you  left,  arranged  with  Knov/Ies  for  publication 

10* 


244  AN  EXTRA  BOOK.  [1872. 

of  the  Study  of  Sociology  in  the  Contemporary,  in  successive  instalments. 
He,  and  the  publisher,  Strahan,  express  themselves  as  rejoicing  to  make  the 
arrangement.  No  difficulty  appears  to  arise  respecting  the  simultaneous 
publication  in  America.  ...  I  was  the  better  for  my  excursion  to  the 
Isle  of  Wight,  but  am  not  well,  and  am  obliged  to  be  careful  as  to  work." 

I  may  remark,  in  passing,  tliat  tlie  last  sentence  gives  me 
the  date  of  an  excursion  whicli  otherwise  I  should  have 
been  puzzled  to  fix — an  excursion  made,  partly  driving 
partly  walking,  in  company  with  Huxley,  Tyndall,  and 
Hooker,  round  the  south  of  the  Island  and  then  from 
Freshwater  across  the  hills  to  Newport.  The  next  letter 
which  I  extract  from  is  dated  16  February,  1872. 

*'  I  have  just  completed  No.  32  of  my  Serial,  and  am  about  to  commence 
the  first  chapter  for  the  Contemporary.  It  will  appear  on  the  1st  April.  .  . 
"The  successive  chapters  will  be  in  great  measure  independent,  and  will  be 
popular  both  in  manner  and  matter.  I  find  that  I  have  got  a  large  amount 
of  interesting  and  piquant  illustration  that  can  be  worked  up  in  them." 

And  now  there  arose  an  unlooked-for  result  from  the 

understanding    that    had    been    made    for    simultaneous 

publication   in   America.      Negotiations   which   Youmans 

had  carried  on  with  one  or  other  periodical  in  the  United 

States   had  all   failed;   and   at   the   time  when   the  first 

chapter  had  been  put  in  type,  neither  he  nor  I  saw  how 

our  plan  was  to  be  carried  out.     When  the  proof  of  this 

first  chapter  reached  him  it  caused  prompt  and  surprising 

action,  as  witness  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  his 

dated  April  3,  1872  :— 

"  A  thousand  thanks  for  your  favour  of  March  13th,  with  article  on  Study  of 
Sociology  enclosed.  I  was  beginning  to  be  worried  about  it,  and  was  on  the 
point  of  telegraphing  you  to  telegraph  me  as  to  what  you  would  do.  You 
did  wisely  in  sending  it,  and  I  decided  upon  our  course  in  ten  minutes  after 
getting  it.  I  determined  to  have  a  monthly  at  once,  and  in  time  to  open  with 
this  article  ...  I  received  your  article  less  than  a  week  ago.  We  have 
started  a  monthly  of  128  pages.  The  first  part  of  it  is  now  printing ;  the  last 
pages  will  be  closed  up  tomorrow,  and  we  will  have  it  out  in  a  few  days  more. 
Of  course  we  had  to  go  in  on  selected  articles  here.  With  yours  for  original, 
and  a  translation  by  my  sister  from  the  French,  a  short  article  by  myself,  and 
fragments  by  my  brother,  we  shall  make  a  very  fair  show.  .  .  .  Nothing 
happens  as  expected,  but  often  the  unexpected  is  best.     I  am  utterly  alad 


^T.  52.]  AN  EXTRA  BOOK.  245 

that  things  have  taken  the  course  they  have.  I  have  wanted  a  medium  of 
speech  that  I  can  control,  and  now  I  shall  have  it." 

The  magazine  thus  suddenly  started  was  The  Popular 
Science  Monthly;  wliicli^  under  the  editorship  of  my  friend, 
has  had  a  prosperous  career  and  done  very  good  work. 
His  brother.  Dr.  W.  J.  Youmans,  for  many  years  his 
assistant,  is  now  the  Editor.  The  next  extract  is  from 
a  letter  of  mine  dated  29th  April : — 

"Thanks  for  the  cheque,  which  is  ample.  I  had  intended,  before  receiving 
it,  to  write  and  ask  whether  this  magazine  is  pecuniarily  a  speculation  of 
your  own  ;  or  whether  the  Appletons  run  the  risk.  If  it  is  your  own,  then  I 
propose  that  you  shall  have  these  articles  of  mine  gratis.  " 

It  turned  out,  however,  that  the  magazine  was  to  be  the 
property  of  the  Appletons.  I  consequently  accepted  the 
cheque,  and  continued  to  receive  payments  from  America 
equal  to  those  which  publication  here  brought  me. 

A  digression,  within  the  digression  constituted  by  the 
Study  of  Sociology,  occurred  after  the  issue  of  some  chapters. 
I  then  wrote,  and  published  in  the  Contemporary,  an  article 
entitled  "  Mr.  Martineau  on  Evolution  ",  which  was  called 
forth  by  some  strictures  of  his  made  in  a  lecture  uttered 
and  printed  not  long  before.  A  reference  to  it  had,  I  see, 
been  made  in  a  letter  to  Youmans  on  8th  April  1872. 

'  Martineau  has  published  in  the  Contemporary  that  essay  of  which  you  sent 
me  a  report.  Its  concessions  are  large,  and  its  criticisms  feeble.  It  illustrates 
what  continually  happens  with  all  parties  who  stand  by  the  old.  If  they  do 
nothing,  things  go  against  them ;  if  they  stir,  things  go  against  them 
still  more." 

As  is  implied  by  this  extract,  the  attack  did  not  seem  to 
me  to  call  for  any  notice.  Afterwards,  however,  I  was 
prompted  to  reply.  Mr.  Knowles  is  well  known  for  his 
editorial  tact,  and  it  did  not  in  this  case  fail  him.  In  the 
course  of  an  after-dinner  conversation  at  Prof.  Huxley's, 
Mr.  Martineau's  criticisms  were  referred  to,  and  a  remark 
made  by  Mr.  Knowles  : — "  The  general  opinion  is  that  you 
gentlemen  are  getting  the  worst  of  it," — served  its  purpose 


246  AN  EXTRA  BOOK,  [1873. 

effectually.  I  forthwith  took  up  Mr.  Martineau's  gauntlet 
and  suspended  other  work  for  an  interval. 

The  refutation  of  his  arguments  was  an  easy  task. 
Within  the  limits  of  the  abstract  and  higher  sciences — 
logic,  metaphysics,  and  psychology, — ^his  competence  was 
undoubted;  but  his  knowledge  of  molecular  physics, 
chemistry,  and  biology,  was  not  such  as  fitted  him  for 
dealing  with  the  general  question  of  Evolution,  and  he 
had  consequently  laid  himself  open  in  fatal  ways. 

The  absence  of  a  rejoinder  from  him  was,  I  believe, 
caused  by  an  illness  from  which  he  did  not  recover  till  the 
matter  had  drifted  by.  Otherwise  I  dare  say  he  would  have 
attempted  a  defence.  A  capable  man  can  always  find 
something  to  say;  and  the  majority  of  readers,  never 
referring  back  to  see  whether  the  main  points  have  been 
dealt  with,  accept  what  he  says  as  adequate.  "  Oh,  that 
has  been  answered ",  is  the  subsequent  remark ;  and 
the  answer  is  assumed  to  be,  as  a  matter  of  course,  a 
sufficient  answer. 

Such  small  incidents  as  the  remainder  of  1872  brought, 
have  been  already  narrated  in  the  last  chapter,  which  this 
chapter  in  part  overlaps.  There  do  not  occur  in  letters  any 
passages  worth  quoting  until  the  beginning  of  1873.  The 
first  of  them,  dated  8th  February,  runs  thus : — 
"  It  turns  out  to  have  been  in  all  respects  a  lucky  thing  that  I  yielded  to  your 
pressure,  and  undertook  to  write  this  Study  of  Sociology.  The  successive 
chapters  in  the  Contemporary  are  having  a  great  effect  on  the  sale  of  my 
books.  Strange  to  say,  I  am  getting  quite  popular  with  women.  " 
The  second  of  them  bears  date  the  7th  March,  and  is 
as  follows : — 

"  Tyndall  was  saying  last  night  at  the  X  that  religious  liberality  is  now 
greater  here  than  with  you.  And  many  facts  imply  it.  While,  as  you  tell 
me,  your  papers  are  shrinking  from  saying  anything  about  the  chapter  on 
the  Educational  Bias,  here  it  has  met  with  more  open  approval  than  any. 
An  extremely  astonishing  illustration  of  the  rapid  theological  thaw,  you  will 
find  in  the  copy  of  the  Nonconformist  I  send  by  this  post,  or  the  next.  In 
a  review  of  a  late  metaphysical  book — Graham's  Idealism — yon  will  find 


Mt.63.]  an  extra  book.  247 

a  passage  expressing  sympathy  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Unknowable,  as 
probably  the  theology  of  the  future.  Think  of  that  for  the  leading  organ  of 
the  Dissenters  1  " 

Doubtless  the  theological  liberalization  was  then,  and  is 
still,  progressing  at  an  unexpected  rate ;  but  it  is  accom- 
panied by  great  energy  and  activity  in  upholding  and 
propagating  the  old  beliefs.  Though  in  many  circles  it 
is  now  possible  to  say,  without  producing  great  astonish- 
ment, all  that  one  thinks,  I  hear  of  other  circles  in 
which  the  reactionary  feeling  is  carried  so  far  that  even 
ordinary  liberality  is  inadmissible.  I  do  not  regret  this. 
The  change  is  quite  as  rapid  as  is  desirable — ^perhaps  even 
more  rapid  than  is  safe. 

Another  two  months  brought  me  a  serious  deprivation. 
An  intimacy  which  had,  within  a  few  preceding  years, 
become  well  established,  and  from  which  I  expected 
pleasure  and  profit  during  years  to  come,  was  suddenly 
brought  to  an  end.  On  May  10,  1873,  there  came  from 
Avignon  the  news  of  the  death  of  John  Stuart  Mill  the 
day  before.  Erysipelas,  consequent  apparently  upon  a 
little  over-exertion  and  exposure,  carried  him  off  quite 
suddenly,  while  yet  he  was  still  active  in  body  and  mind. 

During  a  considerable  period  his  had  been  the  one  con- 
spicuous figure  in  the  higher  regions  of  thought.  So  great, 
indeed,  was  his  influence  that  during  the  interval  between, 
say  1840  and  1860,  few  dared  to  call  his  views  in  question. 
Beyond  the  intrinsic  causes  for  this  predominance  there 
were  two  extrinsic  causes.  The  time  was  one  in  which  the 
deductive  method  had  fallen  into  such  disrepute,  that  in 
the  concrete  sciences  nothing  beyond  the  accumulation  and 
colligation  of  facts  was  tolerated.  Hence  the  System  of 
Logic,  which,  though  it  did  not  ignore  deductive  reasoning, 
was  mainly  occupied  with  the  methods  of  inductive 
reasoning,  served  as  an  authoritative  embodiment  and 
justification  of  the  beliefs  and  practices  of  most  cultivated 


24d  AN  EXTRA  BOOK.  [1873. 

men.  The  time  was  also  one  in  which  the  Froe-trado 
agitation  had  imparted  to  politico-economical  discussions  an 
interest  much  greater  than  they  ever  had  before.  This, 
of  course,  gave  to  his  work  on  Political  Economy,  which 
furnished  weapons  to  the  Free-traders,  an  unusual  currency. 
A  yet  further  cause  possibly  was  that  the  Experiential 
Philosophy,  of  which  he  was  the  leading  exponent,  did  not, 
at  that  time,  meet  with  much  criticism  from  the  Transcen- 
dentalists,  who  have  since  become  active  antagonists. 

To  the  extent  of  attending  some  meetings,  I  had  taken 
a  small  part  in  his  election  as  Member  of  Parliament  for 
Westminster:  being  desirous  that  his  views  should  find 
expression  in  the  House  of  Commons.  There  was,  I 
suspect,  on  my  part  and  on  the  part  of  others,  too  high 
an  expectation  of  the  results.  One  who  has  produced  by 
his  books  a  strong  impersonal  impression  rarely  produces 
a  personal  impression  to  correspond.  The  faculties  which 
have  caused  his  superiority  as  a  writer  are  not,  in  all 
cases,  accompanied  by  the  faculties  which  give  supe- 
riority in  personal  intercourse  or  in  debate;  and  this  is 
especially  the  case  when  he  has  to  address  those  with 
whom  he  is  so  little  in  sympathy  as  Mill  was  with  the 
humdrum  rank  and  file  of  our  legislators.  When,  on  a 
subsequent  election,  he  lost  his  seat,  I  happened,  while 
writing  to  him  on  some  other  matter,  to  express  my  belief 
that  on  the  whole  he  was  better  out  of  the  House  of 
Commons  than  in  it ;  and  he  replied  that  he  was  inclined 
to  think  so  himself. 

Had  he  lived  longer  there  would  doubtless  have  been, 
beyond  further  writings  of  importance,  further  efforts  to 
advance  social  welfare ;  for  Mill  was  not  content  to  do 
this  by  word  only :  he  sought  to  do  it  by  deed  also.  I 
wish  some  one  would  compare  him  as  a  typical  utili- 
tarian with  Carlyle  as  a  typical  anti-utilitarian.  As 
measured,  alike  by  his  domestic  relations  and  his  public 
activities,   the   utilitarian   would  have    much  the  best  of 


^T.  53.]  AN  EXTRA  BOOK.  249 

the  comparison ;  and  his  conduct  as  husband  and  citizen 
■would  constitute  a  sarcastic  comment  on  his  competitor's 
denunciations  of  his  ethical  creed. 

In  a  letter  to  Youmans^  dated  16th  May,  I  find  the 
passage  : — "  In  a  day  or  two  I  shall  send  you  a  copy  of 
the  Examiner,  in  which,  along  with  other  accounts  of 
John  Mill's  life  and  works,  you  will  see  something  from 
me."  In  Appendix  G,  I  have  resuscitated  this  long- 
buried  sketch. 

If  not  about  this  time,  then  a  year  or  two  earlier,  I  was 
compelled  to  restrict  the  hindrances  to  work  caused  by 
correspondence.  To  do  this  I  drew  up  a  circular  which 
I  had  lithographed,  and  copies  of  which  I  used  in  as  many 
cases  as  possible.     It  ran  as  follows  : — 

"  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  regrets  that  he  must  take  measures  for  diminishing 
the  amount  of  his  correspondence. 

"Being  prevented  by  his  state  of  health  from  writing  more  than  a  short 
time  daily,  he  progresses  but  slowly  with  the  work  he  has  undertaken,  and 
his  progress  is  made  slower  by  absorption  of  his  time  in  answering  those 
who  write  to  him.  Letters  inviting  him  to  join  Committees,  to  attend 
Meetings,  or  otherwise  to  further  some  public  object ;  letters  requesting 
interviews  and  autographs  ;  letters  asking  opinions  and  explanations — these, 
together  with  acknowledgments  of  presentation  copies  of  books,  entail 
hindrances  which,  though  trivial  individually,  are  collectively  serious — 
serious,  at  least,  to  one  whose  hours  of  work  are  so  narrowly  limited. 
"As  these  hindrances  increase  Mr.  Spencer  is  compelled  to  do  something 
to  prevent  them.  After  long  hesitation  he  has  decided  to  cut  himself  off 
from  every  engagement  that  is  likely  to  occupy  attention,  however  slight, 
and  to  decline  all  correspondence  not  involved  by  his  immediate  work. 
"  To  explain  the  absence  of  a  special  reply  to  each  communication,  ho 
Bends  this  lithographed  general  reply,  and  he  hopes  that  the  reasons  given 
will  sufficiently  excuse  him  for  not  answering  in  a  more  direct  way  tlu- 
letter  of  Mr. ." 

The  mention  of  correspondence  which  had  to  be  thus 
abridged,  reminds  me  that  from  time  to  time  I  received 
letters  of  startling  kinds — now  vituperating  me  for  my 
opinions  and  now  going  to  extremes  of  laudation.  A  few 
have  been  astonishing,  and  even  amusing,  as  exhibitions 


250  AN  EXTRA  BOOK.  [1873. 

of  vanity.     One  of  these  seems  wortli  reproducing  here.    I 

suppress  not  the  name  only,  but  the  place  and  date,  lest  the 

writer  should  be  identified. 

"  Dear  Sir,— As  the  head  of  my  own  school  of  thought  and  effort,  I  take 
the  liberty  of  forwarding  you  for  publication  or  any  other  use  you  think 
desirable,  three  copies  of  a  paper  read  by  myself  before  the  Philosophical 
Society  here  on  the  11th  inst.  You  will  see  its  nature  by  its  title :  "  The 
Theory  of  Gravitation",  "The  Neb.  Hypothesis",  the  "Tidal  theory  of 
Evolution  and  the  Dynamics  on  Elliptic  motion",  all  stand  disproved. 
"The  apparatus  was  too  cumbersome  to  forward,  but  I  think  there  will  be 
no  difficulty  in  constructing  another :  should  you  consider  that  I  should  be 
at  the  expense  myself,  I  am  willing  to  be  so.    For  my  trustworthiness  I  can 

refer  you  to but  I  do  not  think  you  will  consider  references 

necessary. 

"I  am  not  by  any  means  monied ;  a  few  hundreds,  (some  six  or  so) 
recently  inherited,  being  the  sum  of  my  possessions.  Between  an  inebriate 
father,  and  dyspepsia,  and  neglect,  and  want  of  opportunities  at  home,  plus 
hard  work,  poverty,  religious  and  sexual  troubles  out  here,  my  life  has  not 
been  altogether  sunshine. 

"I  am  now  an  atheist  of  a  fairly  contented  mind,  but  resolved,  (for  no 
selfish  reasons)  that  for  every  inch  I  have  been  thrust  down,  I  wUl  go 
up  a  mile. 

"I  am  only  fairly  read,  but  have  a  good  grasp  of  the  Universe  that  is 
daily  improving.  I  have  also  a  pretty  good  knowledge  of  the  world ;  and 
having  seen  some  vicissitudes  and  mixed  with  some  variety  of  men,  and 
foreigners,  and  travellers,  though  comparatively  untravelled  myself,  I  have 
few  prejudices  and  an  enlarged  understanding.  I  must  ask  your  pardon  for 
thus  introducing  myself,  but  I  know  you  will  grant  it  when  I  tell  you  that  I 
have  labored  most  diligently  these  last  four  or  five  years  entirely  with  the 
object  of  benefiting  my  fellow-man — though  the  practical  turns  one  some- 
times takes,  make  one  feel  as  if  laboring  for  an  undeserving  and  unworthy 

being 

"In  my  endeavours  to  win  for  myself  a  name,  I  have  made  sallies  into 
military,  political  (have  written  a  little)  and  other  matters  where  I  thought 
my  powers  of  origination  would  serve  me.  I  believe  if  I  had  means  and 
appliances  I  could  bring  aerial  navigation  and  one  or  two  useful  inventions 
to  useful  issue.  I  have  been  a  hard  thinker  for  seven  or  eight  years,  and 
have  not  been  young  since  16  years  of  age, — when  I  became  dyspeptic. 
"  I  suppose  if  the  Theory  of  Gravitation  falls,  some  theologians  will  again 
plead  for  direct  divine  interference :  their  day  is  drawing  to  a  close. 
"  One  object  I  had  in  view  in  making  the  investigation,  was  to  silence  the 
argument  I  have  often  heard  and  that  has  been  used  against  myself  in 
religious  controversy,  that  the  greatest  scientist  that  ever  was  or  ever  would 


^T.  53.]  AN  EXTRA  BOOK.  251 

be,  was  a  Christian  1  The  hammer  of  the  Iconoclast  has  fallen,  and  behold 
their  fetish  I  I  was  once  told  that  Newton  "  ought  to  be  worshipped  aa 
a  fetish"! 

' '  I  wUl  trespass  on  you  no  longer,  but  hoping  you  wiU  derive  pleasure  and 
our  cause  will  benefit  by  my  work,  and  that  I  am  not  but  asking  an  agreeable 
favor  of  you  in  entrusting  my  paper  to  your  hands  and  pilotage, — Believe 
me,  a  worker  for  truth,  and  yours  sincerely, ." 

Perhaps  it  will  be  thought  that  the  writer  was  insane; 
but  the  photograph  which  he  inclosed  betrayed  no  mark  of 
insanity,  technically  so  called.  He  was  insane  only  as  being 
swayed  by  an  enormously  disproportionate  self-esteem. 

There  needs  a  local  meteorology  which  shall  take  account 
not  only  of  the  modifying  effects  which  the  surface  of  each 
considerable  area  produces  on  the  weather,  but  also  of  the 
modifying  effects  produced  by  adjacent  surfaces.  The 
climate  of  a  region  is  in  no  small  degree  determined  by 
its  position  in  relation  to  regions  around,  unlike  in  character. 
A  striking  illustration  occurs  in  Strath  Spey.  Between  it 
and  the  western  seas  lies  a  mountainous  tract  some  50 
miles  wide ;  and,  coming  over  its  chilly  high  lands,  which 
form  good  condensers,  the  westerly  winds  deposit  much  of 
their  contained  water.  Hence,  when  they  reach  Strath  Spey, 
which  is  a  broad  open  space,  they  have  comparatively 
little  water  to  deposit,  and  cease  to  send  down  rain.  It 
results  that  there  the  westerly  winds  are  not  rainy  winds, 
and  the  climate  is  comparatively  dry. 

Why  do  I  make  this  remark  here  ?  Well,  the  reason 
is  that  this  year,  at  the  end  of  July,  I  made  acquaintance 
with  Strath  Spey,  and  heard  of  this  peculiarity.  The 
daughters  of  my  friend  Potter,  all  of  whom  I  had  seen 
grow  up  from  infancy,  were  now,  several  of  them,  mothers 
of  families.  The  eldest  had  married  Mr.  Robert  Holt  of 
Liverpool,  who  rented  the  Dell  of  Abernethy  and  the 
extensive  moor  appended  to  it,  which  includes  Cairn 
Gorm,  one  of  the  four  peaks  of  the  Grampians.  Here  I 
had  been  invited  to  visit  them  :  one  of  the  offered  tempta- 


252  AN  EXTRA   BOOK.  [1873. 

tions  being  that  the  Spey,  whicli  borders  part  of  tlie 
estate,  affords  good  salmon-fisliiDg.  To  fix  the  dates  of 
my  several  visits,  respecting  which  I  was  uncertain,  Mrs. 
Holt  has  furnished  me  with  some  entries  from  their  record; 
of  which  here  is  one  dated  2nd  August : — 

•'  Mr.  Spencer,  Mr.  Potter,  and  Robert,  went  to  Advie  by  early  train  and  after 
a  pleasant,  cloudy  but  fine  day,  returned  with  seven  salmon  and  grilse." 

Another  entry,  dated  the  6th,  has  a  little  more  interest. 
Some  8  or  10  miles  from  the  Dell  there  is  a  loch  containing 
an  island  on  which  exist  the  ruins  of  a  castle,  said  to  have 
been  one  of  the  strongholds  of  "The  Wolf  of  Badenoch" — 
a  name  with  which  my  acquaintance,  now  made,  served 
me  in  future  years  as  illustrating  the  genesis  of  certain 
superstitions.     The  entry  referred  to  runs : — 

"  Drove  over  in  two  carriages  to  Loch  an  Eilan.  Mr.  Spencer,  Rate,  and 
Robert  went  by  train  to  Aviemore  and  walked  thence.  The  Martineaus  joined 
us  at  lunch." 

For  the  recovery  of  his  health  Mr.  Martineau  had  taken 
a  house  near  Aviemore,  where  he  has  since  spent  his 
summers.  The  recent  passage  of  arms  between  us  did 
not  interfere  with  friendly  intercourse  during  our  picnic. 

I  had  never  seen  anything  of  the  East  coast,  and  decided 
to  return  south  by  that  route.  A  day  was  spent  with  Bain, 
who  played  the  guide  to  Aberdeen  and  its  surroundings. 
Thence  I  journeyed  to  Inveroran,  Nvhere  I  followed  my 
usual  occupation  for  a  short  time  only,  as  the  dates  imply ; 
for  I  was  in  London  again  early  in  September. 

Before  I  had  got  two-thirds  through  llie  Study  of 
Sociology,  I  became  conscious  that,  for  more  reasons  than 
the  one  above  named,  it  was  well  that  I  had  undertaken 
to  write  it. 

One  reason  of  undeniable  validity  was  that  the  accumu- 
lation of  materials  for  the  Principles  of  Sociology,  which  I 
was  carrying  on  by  proxy,  though  it  had  been  progressing 
for  four  years,  was  not  yet  advanced  far  enough  to  meet 
my  requirements;  and  it  became  clear  that  a  delay  of  a 


^T.  53.]  AN  EXTRA  BOOK.  253 

year  and  a  half  or  so,  before  entering  on  this  larger  under- 
takingj  would  give  me  a  better  equipment. 

Another  reason  disclosed  itself.  Sundry  general  con- 
siderations touching  Sociology  which  I  had  seen  would 
be  needful  as  preliminaries  to  a  scientific  discussion,  and 
which  yet  could  not  be  included  in  the  Principles  of  Sociology, 
or  if  prefixed  would  make  it  too  voluminous,  could  now  be 
treated  of  with  advantage.  There  was  furnished  for  them 
a  fit  place  in  TJie  Study  of  Sociology,  which  stood  in  some 
sort  as  an  introduction. 

A  further  reason  was  that  but  few  persons  had  any 
conception  of  a  Social  Science;  and  that  the  diffusion  of 
such  a  conception  would  usefully  precede  the  publication 
of  the  Principles.  The  possibility  of  Sociology  was  not 
only  not  conceived  by  historians,  but  when  alleged  was 
denied.  Occupied  as  they  had  all  along  been  in  narrating 
the  events  in  the  lives  of  societies,  they  had  paid  little  or 
no  attention  to  the  evolution  of  their  organizations.  If 
a  biographer,  seeing  that  the  incidents  of  his  hero's  life 
did  not  admit  of  scientific  prevision,  therefore  said  that 
there  is  no  science  of  Man,  ignoring  all  the  phenomena 
of  bodily  formation  and  function;  he  would  parallel  the 
ordinary  historian  who,  thinking  of  little  else  but  the 
doings  of  kings,  court-intrigues,  internatioiial  quarrels, 
victories  and  defeats,  concerning  all  which  no  definite 
forecasts  are  possible,  asserts  that  there  is  no  social 
science:  overlooking  the  mutually-dependent  structures 
which  have  been  quietly  unfolding  while  the  transactions 
he  writes  about  have  been  taking  place.  The  mere  fact 
that  during  all  these  centuries  he,  in  common  with  his 
readers,  has  been  in  nearly  every  case  unconscious  of 
that  increasing  division  of  labour  which  characterizes  social 
evolution  everywhere,  shows  how  much  need  there  was  to 
explain  the  scope  and  nature  of  the  social  science. 

A  still  more  cogent  reason  presently  became  manifest  to 
me.     While  describing  and  illustrating  the  various  forma 


254  AN  EXTRA  BOOK.  [1873. 

of  bias  wMch  a  student  of  Sociology  must  guard  against,  I 
became  conscious  that  I  myself  needed  tbe  warnings  I  was 
giving.  The  result  was  that,  while  retaining  my  social 
ideals,  I  gained  a  greater  readiness  to  recognize  the  relative 
goodness  of  forms  which  have  passed  away,  and  a  greater 
preparedness  for  looking  at  the  various  factors  of  social 
development  in  an  unprejudiced  manner.  Without  losing 
my  aversion  to  certain  barbaric  institutions,  sentiments, 
and  beliefs,  considered  in  the  abstract,  I  became  more 
impressed  with  the  necessity  of  contemplating  them  calmly, 
as  having  been  in  their  times  and  places  the  best  that  were 
possible,  and  as  unavoidably  to  be  passed  through  in  the 
course  of  social  evolution. 

The  last  chapter  of  The  Study  of  Sociology  was  published 
in  the  Contemporary  on  the  1st  October,  and  the  volume 
was  issued  on  the  1st  November.  Respecting  its  reception 
I  remember  nothing ;  and  all  I  find  in  correspondence  about 
it  is  the  second  paragraph  of  the  following  extract  from  a 
letter  dated  2nd  December,  1873 : — 

"  Mr.  Gladstone,  a  little  nettled,  I  suppose,  by  my  oritioism  upon  him  as  a 
type  of  the  anti- scientific  public,  has  published  an  explanatory  letter  in  this 
month's  Contemporary.  I  am  appending  his  letter  to  the  end  of  the  volume, 
with  some  comments.  I  will  send  you  a  proof  in  a  few  days. 
"Inclosed  is  a  notice  of  the  Study  from  this  week's  Saturday  Eeview,  quite 
sympathetic  in  tone.  If  the  reviewer  is  right,  you  will  see  that  you  have  a 
good  deal  to  answer  for  in  tempting  me  to  misemploy  my  time  I  However, 
I  think  the  book  is  desirable,  as  preparing  the  way  for  what  is  to  come. 
Moreover,  had  it  not  been  for  the  large  returns  it  has  brought  me,  I  should 
have  been  unable  to  go  on  with  the  Descriptive  Sociology." 

The  closing  sentence  of  this  extract  prompts  me  to 
remark  that  The  Study  of  Sociology  has  been,  pecuniarily 
considered,  unusually  successful  for  a  book  of  its  kind. 
When,  to  the  sums  received  from  England  and  America 
for  the  separate  chapters  as  they  appeared  serially,  there 
are  added  the  sums  since  received  as  royalties  on  the 
successive  editions  of  the  volume,  the  amount  reaches 
between  £1300  and  £1400;  and,  as  editions  are  still  called 


iET.  53.]  AN  EXTRA  BOOK.  255 

for  with  tolerable  regiilarity,  I  suppose  the  total  will 
eventually  be  £1500  or  more.  For  a  five-shilling  book 
on  a  grave  subject,  such  a  result  was  hardly  to  be  expected. 
A  further  amount,  indirectly  accruing,  has  to  be  named. 
As  already  intimated,  the  publication  of  the  chapters  in 
the  Contemporary  Review  greatly  increased  the  demand 
for  my  books ;  and  the  increased  demand  proved  to  be  a 
permanent  one. 

Eeferring  back  to  the  first  paragraph  of  the  above 
extract,  I  may  say  here  that  this  brief  controversy  between 
Mr.  Gladstone  and  myself  led  to  a  private  correspondence 
which  ended  quite  amicably,  and  established  between  us 
social  relations  of  a  pleasant  kind. 


CHAPTER  L. 

SOME  MINOR  INCIDENTS. 

1873.    ^t.  53. 

Essays  from  time  to  time  published  after  the  issue 
of  tlie  second  series  of  Essays  in  1864,  had  now  become 
suflBciently  numerous  to  fill  another  volume.  Written,  like 
preceding  ones,  not  about  matters  of  temporary  interest, 
and  originally  designed  to  have  eventually  a  permanent 
form,  these  essays  I  now  decided  to  re-publish.  Not 
unfrequently  one  who  thus  reproduces  articles  contributed 
to  periodicals  is  reprobated;  but  I  suppose  that  in  my  case 
sufficient  justification  has  been  yielded  by  the  demand  for  suc- 
cessive editions  of  this  volume,  as  of  the  preceding  volumes. 

Partly  because  I  wished  to  include  it  in  this  third  series 
of  essays,  and  partly  because  the  interval  between  the 
ending  of  the  Study  of  Sociology  and  the  commencement 
of  the  Principles  of  Sociology  afforded  a  convenient  oppor- 
tunity, I  devoted  myself,  after  my  return  to  town,  to  an 
episodic  work  which  I  had  long  contemplated.  This  was 
a  piece  of  polemical  writing,  which,  after  so  many  years 
occupied  almost  exclusively  in  producing  books  of  a  purely 
expository  kind,  I  entered  upon  with  some  zest.  As 
the  reader  has  probably  already  inferred,  argumentative 
contests  are  not  wholly  disagreeable  to  me. 

Since  the  publication  of  First  Frinciples  in  1862, 
numerous  criticisms  of  that  work  and  of  subsequent  works 
had  from  time  to  time  appeared :  most  of  them  not  worthy 
of  notice ;  either  because  of  their  triviality  or  because  they 


iET.  53.]  SOME  MINOR  INCIDENTS.  257 

were  anonymous  or  by  writers  of  no  mark.  But  there 
had  been  some  which  asked  attention ;  either  because  of 
their  seeming  validity  or  because  they  came  from  men  of 
acknowledged  weight — the  Kev.  H.  L.  Mansel  (afterwards 
Dean  of  St.  Paul's),  Principal  Caird,  the  Rev.  James 
Martineau,  Mr.  H.  Sidgwick,  Mr.  Shadworth  Hodgson. 
The  objections  raised  by  these  I  undertook  to  answer; 
and  I  published  the  answers  in  the  November  and 
December  numbers  of  the  Fortnightly  Review  under  the 
title  of  "  Replies  to  Criticisms  ". 

This  article,  or  rather  these  two  articles,  had  an  unex- 
pected sequence,  which  entailed  on  me  much  trouble  and 
some  annoyance.  Before  they  were  out  of  hand  there 
appeared  two  lengthy  criticisms  upon  First  Principles 
and  other  books  of  mine — one  in  the  Quarterly  Review  and 
the  other  in  the  British  Quarterly  Review.  The  first  of 
these,  though  partly  dissentient,  was  civil  in  manner  and 
not  unappreciative ;  but  the  second,  making  much  of  some 
small  flaws  which  did  not  in  the  least  affect  the  general 
conclusions,  was  written  with  evident  animosity  and  in 
an  intemperate  manner.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  I 
should  have  let  both  pass  without  remark ;  but,  as  I  was 
then  publishing  replies  to  criticisms,  I  could  not  well  keep 
silence  respecting  these  without  making  the  tacit  admission 
that  the  objections  they  urged  were  valid.  I  therefore 
added  some  pages  dealing  with  them — with  the  first  briefly 
and  with  the  second  at  greater  length. 

In  the  next  number  of  the  British  Quarterly  Review 
there  appeared  a  rejoinder  from  my  critic  (a  senior 
wrangler,  as  it  turned  out)  in  which  he  sought  to  justify 
his  assertions.  As  some  of  these,  touching  the  natures 
of  our  mathematico-physical  cognitions,  tacitly  called  in 
question  the  philosophical  method  pursued  by  me,  I 
thought  it  needful  to  go  further  into  the  matter : 
defending  my  own  positions  and  making  assaults  on  those 

17 


258  SOME  MINOR  INCIDENTS.  [1874. 

of  tlie  reviewer.  The  result  was  the  publication  of  a 
pamphlet  which  I  distributed  widely  among  leading  men 
in  the  scientific  world. 

This  pamphlet,  which  was  issued  early  in  1874, 
would,  I  supposed,  end  the  matter;  but  it  did  not.  It 
initiated  a  controversy  in  the  pages  of  Nature  (chiefly 
concerning  the  bases  of  the  mechanical  axioms),  into 
which  other  combatants  rushed;  and,  broadening  out  as 
all  controversies  do,  this  continued  during  the  spring.  As 
left  standing  in  Nature,  the  results  were  unsatisfactory. 
Determined  as  I  was  that  the  main  question,  obscured  in 
the  dust  raised,  should  not  be  lost  sight  of,  I  drew  up  a 
second  pamphlet,  consisting  chiefly  of  the  letters  published 
in  Nature  with  explanatory  notes,  and  ending  with  a 
summary  of  the  results :  pointing  out  that  my  several 
theses,  which  I  prefixed  to  the  summary,  remained  out- 
standing. Of  this  pamphlet,  too,  I  sent  copies  to  numerous 
competent  men  who  might  feel  interested.  The  final  result 
was  not  unsatisfactory ;  as  witness  the  second  paragraph  of 
the  following  extract  from  a  letter  to  Youmans. 

"  On  Tuesday  I  had  a  little  dinner  to  bring  together  the  publishers  and 
the  Committee  of  the  International  Series.  The  Kings  and  the  Appletons 
seemed  on  very  friendly  terms — there  was  no  sign  of  any  misunderstanding, 
as  you  seemed  to  imply. 

""Last  night  Hirst  gave  me  the  satisfactory  information  that  Gayley,  who  is 
Al  among  mathematicians,  entirely  agrees  with  me  in  the  controversy  with 
M ,  and  thought  M deserved  all  he  got." 

As  I  had  also  the  suffrages  of  Prof.  Sylvester  (who,  if  Prof. 
Cayley  is  Al  among  mathematicians,  may  be  distinguished 
as  A2)  as  well  as  of  Prof.  Tyndall  and  Dr.  Hirst  (the  last 
of  whom  was  at  that  time  president  of  the  Mathematical 
Society),  I  was  content  with  the  result. 

Another  incident,  dating  back  to  this  time,  I  should 
probably  have  omitted  had  I  not  been  reminded  of  it  by 
the  following  note  from  -Mr.  Edward  Miall ;  whom  I  have, 
in  some  of  the  earlier  chapters,  referred  to  as  proprietor 


.Et.  53.]  SOME  MINOR  INCIDENTS.  259 

and  editor  of  the  Nonconformist,  and  originator  of  the 
Anti-State-Church  movement.  Dated  Oct.  29,  1873,  the 
note  runs : — 
"On  Friday  next,  at  three  o'clock  p.m.  I  will  hope  to  meet  you  and 
Mr.  Morley,  to  whom  I  have  written,  for  some  preliminary  conversation 
on  the  question  of  Disendowment.  " 

At  that  time  it  seemed  not  impossible  that  the  question 
of  disestablishment  might  suddenly  come  to  the  front,  in 
the  form  of  a  proposal  for  separating  the  Church  from  the 
State,  and  assigning  to  it  all  the  property  it  now  holds 
in  trust  j  and  that  those  who  were  opposed  to  any  scheme 
of  the  kind  might  find  themselves  taken  unawares  unless 
they  were  ready  with  specific  plans  for  disendowment. 
Already  Mr.  Miall  and  I  had  talked  over  the  matter ;  and  I 
had  spoken  to  Mr.  John  Morley  and  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison. 
The  meeting  took  place  as  arranged,  and  a  general  under- 
standing was  come  to.  It  was  thought  that  it  would  be 
a  fit  division  of  labour  if  the  agitation  for  disestablishment 
on  religious  grounds  were  left  to  dissenters,  while  those 
who  regarded  the  matter  mainly  as  a  secular  one  should 
deal  with  the  disendowment  problem.  Respecting  the 
measures  to  be  proposed,  too,  common  views  were  arrived 
at.  It  was  agreed  that  disendowment  should  be  effected 
by  the  dying  out  of  life-interests  in  the  mass  of  cases ;  by 
the  compensation  of  lay  patrons ;  by  the  making  over  of 
parish  churches  to  parishioners,  to  be  used  at  their  dis- 
cretion for  religious  purposes;  and,  after  the  satisfaction 
of  all  equitable  claims,  by  the  appropriation  of  the 
remaining  funds  towards  the  liquidation  of  the  National 
Debt.  And  it  was  also  agreed  that  the  property  which 
has  accrued  to  the  Church  from  voluntary  sources  since  the 
Reformation,  should  be  dealt  with  by  the  State  exclusively 
in  its  judicial  capacity;  that  is  to  say,  the  State  should, 
in  each  case,  decide  in  what  way  the  property  should  be 
settled  so  as  best  to  fulfil  the  intentions  of  the  donors. 

Some  little  time   afterwards  we   had  a  dinner   at   the 

17* 


260  SOME  MINOR  INCIDENTS.  [1874. 

Westminster  Palace  Hotel,  to  which,  besides  those  already 
named,  there  came  sundry  others  interested  in  the  matter ; 
among  whom,  I  remember,  was  Mr.  Joseph  Chamberlain, 
at  that  time  known  only  as  a  Birmingham  notable.  It  was 
decided  that  a  draft  Bill  should  be  prepared,  embodying 
in  specific  shapes  something  like  the  general  proposals 
above  indicated.  This  was  done ;  and  I  suppose  this  draft 
Bill  somewhere  exists  in  a  state — I  was  going  to  say,  of 
suspended  animation ;  but,  as  it  was  never  born,  the 
phrase  would  be  inapplicable. 

What  happened  subsequently  I  do  not  remember. 


CHAPTER  LI. 

THE  DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY. 

1867—74.    ^t.  47—54. 

In  tlie  last  chapter  but  one  I  liad  to  make  an  overlap  in 
the  narrative,  and  here  I  have  to  make  a  double  overlap. 
For  not  only  while  there  were  occurring  the  incidents  set 
down  in  many  preceding  chapters,  but  also  while  there 
were  occurring  those  set  down  in  the  chapter  described 
as  an  overlap,  there  was  being  carried  on  an  undertaking, 
the  progress  of  which  I  could  not  continually  refer  to 
without  confusing  the  accounts  of  doings  which  mainly 
occupied  me. 

In  Chapter  XLV  I  briefly  described  certain  preparations, 
then  commenced,  for  the  Principles  of  Sociology :  saying 
how  I  had  arranged  to  have  collected  for  me,  and  put  in 
fitly  classified  groups  and  tables,  facts  of  all  kinds,  pre- 
sented by  numerous  races,  which  illustrate  social  evolution 
under  its  various  aspects.  Though  this  classified  com- 
pilation of  materials  was  entered  upon  solely  to  facilitate 
my  own  work,  yet,  after  having  brought  the  mode  of 
classification  to  a  satisfactory  form,  and  after  having  had 
some  of  the  tables  filled  up,  I  decided  to  have  the  scheme 
executed  with  a  view  to  publication :  the  facts  being  so 
presented,  apart  from  hypotheses,  as  to  aid  all  students 
of  Social  Science  in  testing  such  conclusions  as  they 
have  drawn  and  in  drawing  others. 

This  undertaking,  commenced  at  the  close  of  1867,  had 
been  quietly  progressing  from  that  time  to  the  time  now 


262  THE  DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY.         [1870. 

reached — 1874.  The  chief  occurrences  connected  with  the 
prosecution  of  it  down  to  the  latter  date,  must  here  be 
set  down. 

The  loss  of  Mr.  Duncan's  services  was  followed  by  a 
considerable  interval  during  which  the  work  stood  still : 
no  successor  being  discoverable.  As  already  shown  by 
an  extract  from  a  letter  dated  9  March  1870,  I  sought  for 
aid  in  the  United  States  as  well  as  in  Great  Britain.  A 
passage  preceding  the  one  quoted,  which  I  have  reserved 
for  use  here,  runs  as  follows  : — 

''  The  accounts  of  the  uncivilized  races  have  been  in  a  great  measure 
digested,  and  the  facts  they  present  duly  arranged  ;  and  Mr.  Duncan  will,  I 
hope,  be  able  to  complete  them  within  a  moderate  period  after  he  reaches 
India.  We  have  agreed,  too,  that  he  shall,  while  in  India,  carry  on  the 
second  part  of  the  work,  dealing  with  the  extinct  and  decayed  historic  races. 
But  I  see  that  it  wUl  be  needful,  with  a  view  to  the  completion  of  the  under- 
taking in  such  time  as  to  render  it  available  for  me,  that  the  modern 
historic  races  should  be  undertaken  by  some  one  else.  " 

Of  course  the  required  qualifications,  which  were  high, 
excluded  the  mass  of  applicants.  At  length  there  came 
to  me,  on  recommendation,  a  young  Scotchman,  clerical 
by  education  and  ambition,  but  who  was,  I  suspect,  "9, 
stickit  minister."  He  had  not  abandoned  his  ambition, 
however;  for  I  afterwards  learned  that  during  his 
engagement  with  me  he  occasionally  preached :  an 
anomalous  combination  of  functions.  He  was  a  dull 
fellow.  So  wanting  in  ability  to  do  anything  requiring 
more  than  mechanical  intelligence  did  he  prove,  that  I 
had  shortly  to  dismiss  him. 

And  here  I  seize  the  occasion  for  expressing  my  belief 
that  not  only  does  education,  as  at  present  carried  on,  fail 
to  increase  the  power  of  independent  thought,  in  those  who 
have  little,  but  it  tends  to  diminish  such  power  of  indepen- 
dent thought  as  they  naturally  have.  Of  sundry  instances 
which  have  fallen  under  my  observation,  I  will  name 
only  the  most  striking — that  of  a  University  graduate  who 
had  recently  taken  his  degree  with  honours,  though  not 


^T.  50.]     THE  DESGBIPTIVE  SOGtOLOGY.  263 

higli  ones.  Along  with  the  knowledge  thus  implied  there 
went  almost  incredible  ignorance.  He  asked  me  whether 
the  disappearance  of  a  distant  vessel  at  sea  was  due  to 
failure  of  vision,  or  whether,  as  some  said,  it  was  con- 
sequent on  the  curvature  of  the  Earth.  On  a  reference 
being  made  to  the  increase  of  the  population  in  England, 
he  proved  to  be  unaware  of  the  fact  that  our  population  is 
increasing.  He  spoke  of  the  gizzard  of  a  dog ;  and  was 
surprised  on  being  told  that  mammals  have  no  gizzards. 
But  the  most  astonishing  example  disclosed  itself  the 
moment  he  began  to  write  to  my  dictation.  He  did  not 
know  that  the  commencement  of  a  paragraph  is  invariably 
shown  by  the  setting  back  of  the  initial  word !  He  began 
the  first  line  of  each  paragraph  level  with  the  other  lines; 
and,  until  I  explained  it  to  him,  did  not  see  that  when  the 
preceding  paragraph  happens  to  fill  out  completely  its  last 
line,  a  new  paragraph  cannot  be  marked  at  all  unless  its 
first  word  is  thus  set  back.  Here  was  one  who,  during  his 
school  career  and  college  career,  had  been  daily  occupied 
with  books  for  many  hours,  and  who  was  so  unobservant 
that  he  had  never  remarked  this  uniform  trait  in  them; 
much  less  had  perceived  how  such  a  trait  arises ! 

Everybody  nowadays  hears  of  the  mischiefs  of  "  cram  " ; 
and  yet  insistence  upon  them  seems  to  produce  no  effect 
whatever.  Though  it  has  become  manifest  that  the  accu- 
mulation of  knowledge  in  excess  of  power  to  use  it,  is  not 
only  no  aid  to  efl&ciency,  but  is  an  impediment  to  efficiency ; 
yet  the  quantity  of  knowledge  accumulated  continues  to  be 
used  as  the  measure  of  efficiency.  In  pursuance  of  the 
law-established  conceptions  of  education  the  system  has 
practically  become  unalterable;  and  the  minds  of  the 
young,  overburdened  with  useless  knowledge,  will  presently 
exhibit  the  effects  of  measures  which  might  fitly  be  called 
measures  for  the  increase  of  stupidity. 

It  was  not  until  after  many  months  had  passed  that  I 


264  THE  DBSOBIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY.         [1871. 

succeeded  in  finding,  in  the  person  of  Mr.  James  Collier, 
a  capable  successor  to  Mr.  Duncan.  Educated  partly  at 
St.  Andrews  and  partly  at  Edinburgli,  Mr.  Collier,  though 
he  had  not  taken  his  degree,  possessed  in  full  measure  the 
qualifications  requisite  for  the  compilation  and  tabulation 
of  the  Descriptive  Sociology ;  and  the  third  division  of  the 
work,  dealing  with  the  existing  civilized  races,  progressed 
satisfactorily  in  his  hands. 

Thereafter,  correspondence  yields  no  trace  of  the  pro- 
gress of  the  work  until  27  April  1871,  when  I  find  in  a 
letter  to  Youmans  the  following  passage  : — 
'•In  BO  far  as  immediate  personal  results  are  concerned,  this  [product  of 
American  sales  of  my  books]  is  a  matter  of  comparative  indifference  to  me. 
Now,  and  for  the  future,  the  realization  of  profits  interests  me  mainly  as 
facilitating  this  large  expensive  undertaking  which,  as  you  know,  I  am  having 
carried  on  by  proxy ;  partly  with  a  view  to  the  facilitation  of  my  own  work 
when  I  come  to  the  Sociological  division  of  it,  but  stiU  more  with  a  view  to 
wide  and  permanent  use.  It  is  now  nearly  a  year  since  the  printing  of  the 
first  volume  (that  is,  the  preparation  of  the  stereotype-moulds)  was 
commenced.  On  a  rough  estimate,  something  like  £600  will  have  to  be 
laid  out  before  any  returns  can  begin  to  come  in ;  and  the  rate  at  which  the 
work  can  be  carried  on,  is  limited  by  the  rate  at  which  the  surplus  returns 
from  the  sale  of  my  books  enable  me  to  pay  printers'  bills.  With  a  view  to 
more  rapid  progress  with  this  work,  I  am  therefore  interested  in  the  advance 
of  the  American  sales." 

Evidently  the  prosecution  of  the  scheme,  irrespective  of 
the  immediate  needs  of  my  own  work,  had  come  to  interest 
me  greatly. 

The  undertaking  had  now  so  far  advanced  that  the 
tables  embodying  the  classified  facts  presented  by  some 
of  the  uncivilized  societies,  were  in  type ;  and  when  my 
friend  Youmans  came  over  in  July  1871,  he  saw  a  number 
of  the  proofs.  Unlike  those  who  have  not  dropped  their 
educational  blinkers,  he  was  in  all  cases  quick  to  recognize 
things  lying  off  the  beaten  track,  and  to  see  their  relative 
importance.  It  became  at  once  manifest  to  him  that 
exhibiting  sociological  phenomena  in  such  wise  that  com- 
parisons of  them  in  their  coexistences  and  sequences,  as 


iET.  51.]     THE  DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY.  265 

occurring  among  various  peoples  in  different  stages,  were 
made  easy,  would  immensely  facilitate  the  discovery  of 
sociological  truths.  To  have  before  us,  in  manageable 
form,  evidence  proving  the  correlations  which  everywhere 
exist  between  great  militant  activity  and  the  degradation 
of  women,  between  a  despotic  form  of  government 
and  elaborate  ceremonial  in  social  intercourse^  between 
relatively  peaceful  social  activities  and  the  relaxation 
of  coercive  institutions,  promises  furtherance  of  human 
welfare  in  a  much  greater  degree  than  does  learning 
whether  the  story  of  Alfred  and  the  cakes  is  a  fact  or 
a  myth,  whether  Queen  Elizabeth  intrigued  with  Essex 
or  not,  where  Prince  Charles  hid  himself,  and  what 
were  the  details  of  this  battle  or  the  other  siege — pieces 
of  historical  gossip  which  cannot  in  the  least  affect  men's 
conceptions  of  the  ways  in  which  social  phenomena  hang 
together,  or  aid  them  in  shaping  their  public  conduct. 
Without  recognizing  such  sociological  correlations  as  those 
just  instanced,  which,  indeed,  at  that  time  did  not  ^'  jump 
to  the  eyes,"  as  they  did  when  a  large  number  of  tables 
had  been  prepared,  my  friend  anticipated  much  help  in 
rationalizing  men's  conceptions  of  civilization  and  guiding 
their  actions  in  politics. 

It  resulted  that  he  became  anxious  to  have  the  under- 
taking pushed  forward  with  greater  rapidity.  The  first 
division,  dealing  with  the  uncivilized  races,  was  in  progress; 
as  was  also  the  third  division,  dealing  with  the  existing 
civilized  races  ;  but  nothing  had  been  done,  or  was  about 
to  be  done,  towards  executing  the  second  division,  dealing 
with  the  extinct  and  decayed  civilized  races.  On  learning 
this  he  urged  me  to  put  this  division  also  in  hand.  I 
explained  that  already  my  resources  were  taxed  to  the 
uttermost  by  payments  for  compilation  and  printing,  and 
that  more  rapid  progress  was  impossible.  Eager  to  have 
useful  things  done,  as  he  always  was,  he  presently  made 
me  a  remarkable  proposal.     If  I  would  superintend  the 


266  THE  DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY.         [1872. 

execution  of  tlie  second  division^  lie  undertook,  on  behalf 
of  tlie  Americans,  that  they  would  furnish  funds  for  paying 
the  compiler  and  the  printer.  In  what  way  I  received 
this  proposal  I  cannot  remember.  Indeed,  until  corre- 
spondence recalled  it  to  me,  I  had  forgotten  it.  Evidently, 
however,  as  shown  by  subsequent  occurrences,  I  finally 
assented.  For  when,  after  making  arrangements  with 
M,  Bailli^re  for  the  publication  of  the  "  International 
Scientific  Series  "  in  France,  we  parted,  I  for  home  and  he 
for  Germany,  it  was  with  the  understanding  that  he  should 
advertise  in  German  newspapers  for  a  fit  compiler. 

In  most  cases  the  answers  to  advertisements  are  any- 
thing but  satisfactory.  Ordinarily  there  come  many 
blanks  and  no  prize;  but  in  this  case  there  came  one 
prize  and  no  blanks.  The  solitary  respondent  was  Dr. 
Eichard  Schepp^,  at  that  time  a  teacher  at  Hofwil 
school  He  accepted  the  engagement,  and  joined  me  at 
the  end  of  the  year.  Writing  to  Youmans  on  Feb.  2. 
1872  I  said  of  him  : — "  Scheppig  is  beginning  to  get  into 
his  work,  and,  as  I  gather,  likes  it.  He  seems  to  me  a 
clear-headed  fellow,  and  is,  I  think,  likely  to  succeed." 
This  expectation  was  fully  verified.  He  turned  out  to  be 
admirably  adapted  for  the  work  he  had  undertaken. 

The  financial  arrangement  made  with  Youmans,  how- 
ever, was  not  carried  out.  Mis-statements  which  had 
become  current  in  America  respecting  the  continuance  of 
my  work,  which  was  represented  as  having  been  made  pos- 
sible exclusively  by  the  American  testimonial,  increased 
the  reluctance  I  originally  felt.  The  following  letter 
refers  to  the  erroneous  impressions  that  prevailed  and 
to  the  course  consequently  taken  by  me.  It  is  dated 
4  May,  1872. 

"  I  heard  lately  of  certain  absurd  statements  that  are  current  in  America 
respecting  the  aid  rendered  to  me  by  Americans,  and  the  difficulties  from 
which  I  was  rescued  by  them.  The  copy  of  the  'New  York  Evening  Mail  of 
April  15,  which  I  received  from  you  this  morning,  serves  indiiectly  to  verify 


^T.  52.]     THE  DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY.  267 

the  report  that  had  reached  me  respecting  these  statements  ;  since  it  makes 
statements,  nearly  akin  to  them,  that  are  no  less  erroneous. 
"It  is  needful  that  this  propagation  of  misconceptions  should  be  checked. 
I  at  first  thought,  on  reading  the  article,  of  writing  a  letter  myself  to  the 
New  York  Evening  Mail  on  the  matter.  But  on  second  thoughts  I  see  that 
the  statement  will  come  better  from  you.  Inclosed  I  give  you  an  outline  of 
the  facts,  sufficient  to  dissipate  the  erroneous  beliefs  that  have  been  spread 
among  you,  and  are  likely  to  become  exaggerated  as  well  as  confirmed  if  they 
pass  uncontradicted.  .  .  . 

"Under  the  circumstances  I  must  cancel  the  arrangement  made  with  regard 
to  the  payment  of  Scheppig,  and  the  American  publication  of  the  second 
division  of  the  Descriptive  Sociology.  I  see  that  whatever  precaution  may 
be  taken  it  is  sure  to  be  misapprehended  and  mis-stated.  I  see  that  I  shall 
be  able  to  pay  Scheppig  myself — especially  now  that  the  proceeds  of  these 
sociological  articles  have  come  to  help." 

Writing  on  the  lOth  August,  I  said  : — "  Your  letter  was 
just  the  thing  needed,  and  the  circulation  of  it  through  the 
Tribune  will  be  quite  sufficient."  Most  of  the  facts  con- 
tained in  this  letter  are  already  known  to  the  reader ;  but 
as  there  are  joined  with  them  some  not  before  stated,  I 
have  decided  to  reproduce  it  in  Appendix  H. 

The  work  proceeded  without  incident  until  the  suc- 
ceeding midsummer,  when  a  letter  of  July  31,  1873, 
says : — "  The  first  number  of  Descriptive  Sociology  was 
published  yesterday."  On  the  27th  September,  time 
having  been  given  to  contemplate  my  position,  I  sent  my 
friend  a  discouraging  report : — 

"  I  have  just  been  going  through  my  bills,  and  I  find  that  this  first 
number  has  cost  me  for  the — 

Composition,    Correction,     Stereotyping,    Duplicate 
Plates  and  Printing  One  Thousand  Copies  ...     £351  15  10 

Cost  of  authorship  [i.e.  payments  to  compUer]        ...        296    7    2 

£648  3  0 
"  You  will  see  at  once  that  to  reimburse  myself  for  this  large  outlay  (which 
would  reach  £700  were  I  to  add  loss  of  interest)  will  require  either  an  exten- 
sive sale  or  a  pretty  high  rate  of  profit  on  a  small  sale ;  and  I  see  little 
chance  of  being  able  to  go  on  with  such  returns  from  America  as  even  your 
last  letter  seems  to  imply."     .     .     , 

"  I  am  quite  content  to  give  my  labour  for  nothing.  I  am  content  even 
to  lose  something  by  unrepaid  costs  of  authorship.  But  it  is  clear  that  I 
ghall  not  be  able  to  bear  the  loss  that  now  appears  likely.   In  addition  to  the 


268  THE  DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY.         [1874. 

Bom  of  £648  named  above,  I  have  already  spent  on  the  first  division  of 
Duncan,  "  Uncivilized  Kaoes,"  in  printing  and  authorship,  about  £400 ;  and 
on  the  second  division  about  £280.  So  that  you  see  I  am  more  than  £1300 
out  of  pocket  without  getting  a  penny  back.  I  must  now,  being  in  the 
middle  of  it,  complete  the  first  part  of  the  "Extinct  Civilized  Baces"and 
the  first  part  of  the  "  Savage  Races,"  by  which  time  I  shall  have  laid  out  more 
than  £2000,  It  will  then  be  time  to  stop ;  for,  as  I  now  infer,  there  is  but  little 
probability  of  getting  a  return  that  will  approximately  meet  my  outlay." 

At  the  close  of  the  subsequent  March,  I  find  a  passage 
implying  further  discouragement : — 

"  No.  2  of  the  De».  Soc.  is  out,  and  I  have  ordered  a  copy  to  be  sent  to  you. 
It  will  be  a  very  valuable  instalment  for  all  people  sufBciently  rational  to 
appreciate  it ;  of  which,  however,  there  are  unfortunately  but  few.  The 
third  volume  of  Forster's  Life  of  Dickens  sold  10,000  copies  in  ten  days.  The 
first  part  of  Detcriptive  Sociology  has  been  asked  for  by  the  public  to  the 
extent  of  not  quite  200  copies  in  eight  months." 

It  was  thus  becoming  clear  that  I  had  greatly  over- 
estimated the  amount  of  desire  which  existed  in  the  public 
mind  for  social  facts  of  an  instructive  kind.  They  greatly 
preferred  those  of  an  uninstructive  kind. 

My  American  friend  had,  I  suppose,  been  naming  to 
some  of  those  likely  to  be  interested,  these  adverse  results, 
and  the  consequent  probability  that  I  should  shortly  bring 
the  undertaking  to  a  close ;  for,  early  in  the  autumn,  he 
transmitted  to  me  a  letter  from  Mr.  Edwin  W.  Bryant, 
an  actuary  of  St.  Louis,  showing  something  more  than 
ordinary  sympathy.  This  letter,  dated  27  June,  setting 
out  with  remarks  of  a  complimentary  kind  concerning  the 
importance  of  the  undertaking,  went  on  to  say  : — 
••  But,  leaving  to  you  all  this  argument,  to  amplify,  supplement,  or 
suppress,  as  you  may  think  best,  I  propose  this  :  that  we  try  to  get  £1000 
(or  more  if  we  can)  to  send  to  Mr.  Spencer,  to  be  used  by  him  as  he  chooses, 
in  aid  of  the  work — to  pay  for  assistance,  printing  or  whatever  else  there 
may  be  to  pay  for.  Of  this  amount,  you  may  count  on  me  for  one  half — 
five  hundred  pounds — any  time  at  call,  and  without  reference  to  what  you 
may  get  or  fail  to  get  from  any  one  else." 

This  drew  from  me  the  following  response  in  a  letter 
dated  23  Sept.  1874  :— 

"  Bryant's  proposal  is  a  very  noble  one,  and  the  more  noble  because  he  is 
not,  I  suppose,  a  man  of  very  extensive  means.    I  suspected  that  there  was 


Ml.  54.]     THE  DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY.  269 

behind  the  question  in  your  previous  letter,  some  scheme  of  the  kind ;  as  I 
concluded  that  it  vras  not  likely  to  come  from  the  Appletons. 
"  While  fully  appreciating  the  feeling  with  which  Mr.  Bryant's  proposal  is 
made,  and  that  which  has  previously  prompted  others  to  offer  to  bear  part 
of  the  expenses,  I  still  cannot  yield  to  such  an  arrangement  as  that  proposed. 
There  is,  however,  a  plan  which  it  occurs  to  me  might  possibly  be  practic- 
able, and  which  would,  I  think,  serve  the  several  ends  aimed  at,  in  an 
unobjectionable  way.  Mr.  Bryant  and  other  Americans,  while  anxious  to 
insure  the  continuance  of  the  Descriptive  Sociology,  are  also  anxious  that 
local  institutions  should  have  copies.  Both  ends  would  be  subserved  if  they 
were  to  purchase  from  me,  and  were  to  distribute  to  these  institutions ;  and 
this  arrangement  might  be  made  in  such  a  way  as  to  divide  the  advantages. 
It  would  yield  me  an  ample  return  were  I  to  supply  copies  at  half  the 
retail  price.  Instead  of  absolutely  giving  copies  to  American  libraries, 
schools,  &a.,  my  American  friends  might  offer  them  to  such  buyers  at,  say, 
l-3rd  the  retail  price.  In  this  case  they  would  themselves  have  to  lose  on 
each  copy  only  l-6th  of  the  retail  price ;  and  thus  a  moderate  sum  would  go  a 
long  way.  Even  if  they  offered  copies  to  these  institutions  at  l-4th  the  retail 
price,  themselves  paying  the  other  l-4th  the  distribution  of,  say,  300  copies, 
would  go  far  towards  covering  the  printing  expenses,  and  would  leave  the 
English  sales  to  do  something  towards  returning  cost  of  authorship  [t.«. 
payments  to  compilers].  " 

Three  weeks  later^  however,  I  wrote  withdrawing  this 
qualified  assent,  as  follows  : — 

"  After  several  times  thinking  over  again  the  reply  I  made  in  my  last  to 
the  generous  proposal  made  by  Mr.  Bryant,  I  have  decided  to  decline  even 
that  modified  mode  of  aid  which  I  described  as  one  that  might  perhaps  be 
adopted.  On  considering  my  accounts  and  probable  resources,  I  conclude 
that  the  amount  of  loss  entailed  on  me  will  not  be  greater  than  I  can  bear. 
Manifestly,  the  undertaking  will  become  easier  as  it  goes  on  ;  since,  besides 
the  proceeds  of  my  books  at  large,  which  seem  likely  to  go  on  increasing, 
I  shall  have  the  proceeds  from  the  Descriptive  Sociology  itself,  which, 
inadequate  as  they  may  be,  will  go  some  way  towards  defraying  the  cost  of 
each  succeeding  number.  As  I  have  been  able  to  meet  the  expenditure  up 
to  the  present  time  (for  I  have  now  settled  my  printer's  account)  I  may 
fairly  calculate  upon  being  able  to  do  so  in  future — especially  as  the  parts 
are  not  likely  to  be  issued  so  near  together  as  the  two  in  last  half  year. 
Concluding,  thus,  that  I  shall  be  able  to  do  the  work  myself  by  devoting  to  it 
such  part  of  my  income  as  remains  after  defraying  personal  expenses,  I 
prefer  to  do  this.    I  have  no  motive  for  accumulating." 

Nothing  further  passed;  and  thus  ended  all  plans  for 
lightening  the  burden  I  had  taken  upon  myself. 

A  foregoing  extract,  dated  27th   ISept.  1873,  intimates 
my  intention  of  stopping  as  soon  as  I  had  printed  and 


270  THE  DESCRIPTIVE  SOGIOLOaY.         [1874. 

published  the  first  part  of  the  "  Extinct  Civilized  Races  " 
and  the  first  part  of  the  "  Savage  Races".  This  intention, 
however,  I  abandoned  for  more  reasons  than  one. 

The  understanding  in  pursuance  of  which  the  compilers 
were  working,  stood  in  the  way  of  so  prompt  a  cessation. 
To  each  of  them  I  had  given  a  double  incentive  beyond 
the  direct  payment  for  work  done  which  he  received.  One 
was  the  publication  of  his  name  as  compiler  and  abstracter, 
and  consequent  obtainment  of  credit  for  such  skill  and 
labour  as  were  implied.  The  other  was  a  promise  that, 
as  soon  as  the  sales  repaid  me  for  printing  expenses,  I 
would  give  him  half  the  net  returns,  without  waiting  to 
repay  myself  for  the  cost  of  compilation.  This  undertaking 
I  felt  bound  to  carry  out  in  respect  not  only  of  those  parts 
which  were  completed  or  far  advanced,  but  also  in  respect 
of  those  which  were  commenced.  Of  the  "Uncivilized 
Races,"  compiled  by  Prof.  Duncan,  such  parts  as  were  not 
wholly  or  partially  through  the  press  were  in  manuscript. 
Dr.  Scheppig  had  already  made  considerable  progress  with 
the  "Hebrews  and  Phoenicians".  And  Mr.  Collier  had 
been  for  some  time  at  work  on  the  "French".  To  have 
stopped  at  the  point  above  named  would,  of  course,  have 
been  to  break,  if  not  wholly  still  in  part,  the  engagement 
I  had  made ;  so  that  I  was  obliged  to  continue. 

A  further  reason  for  continuing  was  that  if  I  did  not  do 
so,  a  large  amount  of  collected,  classified,  and  digested 
information,  extremely  valuable  to  the  sociological  student, 
would  be  thrown  away.  That  I  was  leaving  in  a  useless 
state  the  products  of  years  of  labour,  would  have  been  a 
thought  scarcely  tolerable  to  me.  I  should  have  been 
restive  under  the  consciousness  of  what  would  have  seemed 
a  serious  loss  to  social  science. 

Thus  I  found  myself  committed  to  more  than  I  at  first 
foresaw.  I  accepted  the  situation ;  and,  disastrous  as  was 
the  undertaking  pecuniarily  considered,  I  persisted  in  it 
through  the  seven  following  years. 


PART    XI. 


CHAPTER  LTI. 

A  RETROSPECTIVE  GLANCE. 

1874.     ^t.  54. 

Before  saying  anytliing  about  my  next  book,  or  rather 
about  my  life  during  the  time  it  was  in  band,  it  will  be 
well  to  look  back  from  this  advanced  stage  of  my  under- 
taking to  the  earlier  stages.  This  retrospective  glance 
discloses  a  certain  trait  not  hitherto  named. 

For  now  I  had  come  round  a  second  time  to  the  topic 
with  which  I  commenced  my  career  as  a  writer;  after 
having  made,  first  a  narrower,  and  then  a  wider,  circuit 
of  exploration.  In  1842,  while  but  two  and  twenty,  the 
predominant  interest  I  displayed,  apart  from  interests  in 
subjects  bearing  on  civil  engineering,  was  an  interest  in 
the  politico-ethical  question — "  What  are  the  duties  of  the 
State,  and  what  are  not  its  duties".  There  resulted  the 
letters,  and  subsequently  the  pamphlet,  on  The  Proper 
Sphere  of  Government.  In  the  interval  between  1842  and 
1848,  a  consciousness  that  the  conceptions  set  forth  in  this 
pamphlet  were  crude  and  incomplete,  prompted  me  to  enter 
on  new  fields  of  thought  and  inquiry.  Various  readings 
in  politics  and  ethics,  joined  with  some  excursions  into 
biology  and  psychology,  gave  to  these  conceptions  more 
developed  forms  and  more  satisfactory  foundations.  A 
desire  to  set  forth  the  ethical  principles  reached,  and  the 
derived  conclusions  respecting  the  right  limits  of  govern- 
mental action,  led,  in  1848,  to  the  commencement  of  Social 
Statics.     At  the  close  of  1850  the  results  of  this  widened 

18 


274  A  RETROSPECTIVE  GLANCE.  [1874. 

range  of  inquiry,  as  embodied  in  that  work,  were  published : 
the  completion  of  the  first  circuit  having  brought  me  round, 
in  the  latter  chapters,  to  my  original  topic. 

In  the  subsequent  seven  years,  less  from  intention  than 
from  unconscious  proclivity,  this  process  was  repeated. 
Not  only  subjects  nearly  allied  to  the  politico-ethical,  but 
also  subjects  remotely  allied  to  it,  occupied  my  attention 
and  were  dealt  with  in  various  essays.  This  extension  of 
the  range  of  inquiry,  leading  to  more  general  conclusions, 
ended  in  those  most  general  conclusions  set  forth  in  the 
programme  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy,  written  out  in  the 
first  days  of  1858.  In  this  the  doctrines  concerning  social 
organization,  and  after  them  the  ethical  doctrines,  were,  by 
their  positions  in  the  series  of  volumes  described,  repre- 
sented as  the  outcome  of  the  doctrines  included  in  the 
volumes  on  Biology  and  Psychology,  as  well  as  of  those 
included  in  First  Principles.  That  is  to  say,  the  politico- 
ethical  conclusions  held,  had  come  to  form  the  terminal 
part  of  a  system  the  earlier  parts  of  which  prepared  the 
way  for  it.  From  that  date,  1858,  down  to  the  time  now 
arrived  at,  the  years  had  been  spent  in  writing  the 
volumes  in  which  the  simpler  sciences,  forming  the  true 
bases  of  the  most  complex  sciences,  were  dealt  with.  At 
length,  in  1874,  the  second  circuit,  immensely  wider  than 
the  first,  had  been  traversed ;  and  I  had  come  round  once 
more,  not  immediately  to  the  topic  with  which  I  set  out, 
but  to  the  science  of  Sociology  at  large,  which  eventually 
rises  to  this  topic. 

Beyond  this  long  and  elaborate  preparation,  which,  at 
first  pursued  without  conscious  reference  to  an  end,  was, 
during  the  preceding  16  years,  consciously  pursued  with 
such  reference,  there  had  been  a  preparation  not  contem- 
plated. The  Descriptive  Sociology  had  been  for  seven  years 
in  progress;  making  me  gradually- acquainted  with  more 
numerous  and  varied  groups  of  social  phenomena,  disclosing 
truths  of  unexpected  kinds,  and  occasionally  obliging  me 


^T.  54.]        A  RETROSPECTIVE  GLANCE.  275 

to  abandon  some  of  my  pre-conceptions.  And  then,  lastly, 
I  had  been  incidentally  led  into  writing  a  book  which, 
ostensibly  for  the  instruction  of  others,  served  at  the  same 
time  for  self-instruction — The  Study  of  Sociology.  In 
setting  forth  the  difficulties  to  be  encountered  and  the 
varieties  of  bias  to  be  guarded  against,  I  became  myself 
better  disciplined  for  the  task  I  was  about  to  undertake. 

This  second  recommencement,  forming  a  new  departure 
in  my  work,  seems  to  call  for  some  definite  division  in  the 
narrative;  and  I  have  therefore  thought  it  well  here  to 
commence  Part  XL 


18^ 


CHAPTER  LIII. 
VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY. 

1874—77.    ^t.  54—57. 

With  tlie  entry  on  this  new  division  of  my  wort^  tlie 
marshalling  of  evidence  became  a  much  more  extensive 
and  complicated  business  than  it  had  hitherto  been.  The 
facts,  so  multitudinous  in  their  numbers,  so  different  in 
their  kinds,  so  varied  in  their  sources,  formed  a  hetero- 
geneous aggregate  difl&cult  to  bring  into  the  clear  and 
effective  order  required  for  carrying  on  an  argument;  so  that 
I  felt  much  as  might  a  general  of  division  who  had  become 
commander-in-chief;  or  rather,  as  one  who  had  to  undertake 
this  highest  function  in  addition  to  the  lower  functions  of 
all  his  subordinates  of  the  first,  second  and  third  grades. 
Only  by  deliberate  method  persistently  followed,  was  it 
possible  to  avoid  confusion.  A  few  words  may  fitly  be 
said  here  concerning  my  materials,  and  the  ways  in  which 
I  dealt  with  them. 

During  the  five  and  twenty  preceding  years  there  had 
been  in  course  of  accumulation,  extracts  and  memoranda 
from  time  to  time  made.  My  reading,  though  not  extensive, 
and  though  chiefly  devoted  to  the  subjects  which  occupied 
me  during  this  long  interval,  frequently  brought  under  my 
eyes  noteworthy  facts  bearing  on  this  or  that  division  of 
Sociology.  These,  along  with  the  suggested  ideas,  were 
jotted  down  and  put  away.  The  resulting  mass  of  manu- 
script materials  remained  for  years  unclassified;  but  every 
now  and  then  I  took  out  the  contents  of  the  drawer  which 
received  these  miscellaneous  contributions  and  put  them  in 


^T.  54]  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  277 

some  degree  of  order — grouping  togetlier  the  ecclesiastical, 
tlie  political,  the  industrial  &c.;  so  that,  by  the  time  I  began 
to  build,  there  had  been  formed  several  considerable  heaps 
of  undressed  stones  and  bricks. 

But  now  I  had  to  utilize  the  relatively  large  masses  of 
materials  gathered  together  in  the  Descriptive  Sociology. 
For  economization  of  labour,  it  was  needful  still  further  to 
classify  these;  and  to  save  time,  as  well  as  to  avoid  errors 
in  re-transcription,  my  habit  was,  with  such  parts  of  the 
work  as  were  printed,  to  cut  up  two  copies.  Suppose  the 
general  topic  to  be  dealt  with  was  "Primitive  Ideas."  Then 
the  process  was  that  of  reading  through  all  the  groups  of 
extracts  concerning  the  uncivilized  and  semi-civilized  races 
under  the  head  of  "  Superstitions,^^  as  well  as  those  under 
other  heads  that  were  likely  to  contain  allied  evidence — 
"Knowledge^',  " Ecclesiastical '^  &c.  As  I  read  I  marked 
each  statement  that  had  any  significant  bearing ;  and  these 
marked  statements  were  cut  out  by  my  secretary  after  he 
had  supplied  any  references  which  excision  would  destroy. 
The  large  heap  resulting  was  joined  with  the  kindred 
heap  of  materials  previously  accumulated ;  and  there  now 
came  the  business  of  re-classifying  them  all  in  preparation 
for  writing.  During  a  considerable  preceding  period  the 
sub-divisions  of  the  topic  of  "Primitive  Ideas"  had  been 
thought  about;  and  various  heads  of  chapters  had  been 
settled — "  Ideas  of  Sleep  and  Dreams,"  "  Ideas  of  Death 
and  Resurrection,"  "  Ideas  of  Another  Life,"  "  Ideas  of 
Another  World  "  &c.  &c.  Taking  a  number  of  sheets  of 
double  foolscap,  severally  fitted  to  contain  between  their  two 
leaves  numerous  memoranda,  I  placed  these  in  a  semi-circle 
on  the  floor  round  my  chair :  having  indorsed  each  with 
the  title  of  a  chapter,  and  having  arranged  them  in  some- 
thing like  proper  sequence.  Then,  putting  before  me  the 
heap  of  extracts  and  memoranda,  I  assigned  each  as  I 
read  it  to  its  appropriate  chapter.  Occasionally  I  came 
upon  a  fact  which  indicated  to  me  the  need  for  a  chapter 


278  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  [1874. 

I  had  not  thouglit  of.  An  additional  sheet  for  this  was 
introduced,  and  other  kindred  facts  were  from  time  to  time 
placed  with  this  initial  one.  Several  sittings  were  usually 
required  to  thus  sort  the  entire  heap.  Mostly,  too,  as  this 
process  was  gone  through  some  time  in  advance  of  need, 
there  came  a  repetition,  or  several  repetitions,  before  the 
series  of  chapters  had  assumed  its  final  order,  and  the 
materials  had  all  been  distributed. 

When  about  to  begin  a  chapter,  T  made  a  further  rough 
classification.  On  a  small  table  before  me  I  had  a  large 
rude  desk — a  hinged  board,  covered  with  green  baize, 
which  was  capable  of  being  inclined  at  different  angles  by 
a  moveable  prop  behind.  Here  I  grouped  the  collected 
materials  appropriated  to  the  successive  sections  of  the 
chapter;  and  those  which  were  to  be  contained  in  each  section 
were  put  into  the  most  convenient  sequence.  Then,  as  I 
dictated,  I  from  time  to  time  handed  to  my  secretary  an 
extract  to  be  incorporated. 

Concerning  the  start  made  with  this  division  of  my 
work,  the  only  information  I  have  is  contained  in  the 
following  extract  dated  5  March  1874 : — 

"  But  for  various  minor  bothers,  and  chiefly  these  replies  to  criticisms,  I 
should  have  been  by  this  time  pretty  far  advanced  with  the  first  number  of 
the  Principles  of  Sociology.  As  it  is,  about  50  pp.  of  MS.  are  ready ;  and 
I  shall  give  the  first  two  chapters  to  the  printer  immediately.  .  . 
"  I  received  this  morning  from  the  Prof,  of  Philosophy  at  Messina,  a 
proposal  to  translate  my  books  into  Italian  in  conjunction  with  his  brother. 
He  seems  a  fit  translator,  and  I  have  assented.     .    . 

"  I  suppose  I  shall  hear  of  the  Appletons  soon  after  their  arrival.  I  must 
ask  them  to  meet  Huxley,  TyndaU  and  King  at  dinner.  To  night  I  expect 
to  meet  President  Eliot  of  Harvard,  who  is  coming  to  dine  at  the  X." 

Respecting  the  second  of  the  foregoing  paragraphs,  I 
may  remark  that  the  proposal  to  translate  into  Italian  did 
not  then  take  effect,  because  the  translators  were  unable  to 
find  a  publisher  who  would  run  the  risk. 

On  turning  over  my  papers  I  find  that  in  1874  I  made 
an    abortive   attempt   to   keep    a    diary.      I   say   abortive, 


^T.  54.]  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  279 

because  the  entries^  irregular  wMle  they  continued,  ceased 

altogether  in  March.     The  diary  sets  out  with  mention  of 

the  usual  New  Year's  Day  dinner  at  Huxley's  :  the  joining 

in  which,  commenced  in  1856,  still  continued.      On  Jan.  24. 

occurs  the  entry  : — 

"  Went  to  the  Burrs  at  Aldermaston.  Met  there  Beeve  of  the  Edinburgh 
Rev.,  Lord  Aberdare,  Lord  A.  Eussell,  Miss  Thackeray  &c." 

This  was  not  the  first,  but  the  second  or  third,  of  my  visits 
to  Aldermaston  Court,  the  seat  of  Mr.  Higford  Burr — or 
rather,  one  might  almost  say,  of  Mrs.  Higford  Burr ;  who 
took  the  lead  and  who  habitually  gathered  together  on  such 
occasions  circles  of  agreeable  people.  The  place  has 
attractive  surroundings  :  notably  the  ''  Chase,"  which  is 
said  to  date  back  to  the  time  of  Doomsday  Book.  On  two 
occasions  when  I  was  there,  visits  were  paid  to  Silchester, 
an  adjacent  old  Eoman  town  of  which  the  remains  are 
very  striking.  It  must  have  been  nearly  as  large  as 
Pompeii :  the  surrounding  walls,  which  are  still  almost  if 
not  quite  complete,  showing  its  dimensions.  After  con- 
templating the  uncovered  basements  of  public  buildings, 
baths  &c.,  and  seeing  the  entrance-steps  deeply  worn  by 
passing  feet,  and  noting,  too,  the  remains  of  an  amphi- 
theatre, I  conceived  far  more  vividly  than  before  the 
hold  which  Roman  civilization  had  obtained  in  England. 

While  mentioning  these  visits  into  the  country,  I  am 
reminded  that  Spottiswoode  (one  of  our  X  Club)  had, 
before  this  time,  purchased  Coombe  Bank  near  Sevenoaks. 
Here  I  occasionally  spent  the  time  from  Saturday  to 
Monday  :  usually  in  company  with  others  of  our  common 
friends.  After  his  mathematics,  Spottiswoode  especially 
devoted  himself  to  researches  in  electricity;  and,  as  a 
natural  consequence,  he  early  made  domestic  use  of  electric 
lighting.  I  believe  he  was  the  first  to  have  his  dinner 
table  lighted  by  the  Swan-lamps. 

I  may  here  add  the  fact,  recalled  by  letters  of  this  date, 


280  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOGIOWGY.  [1874. 

that  I  avoided  social  gatherings  of  a  public  kind.  The 
last  public  dinner  I  attended  was  in  1865;  and  several 
motives  then  prompted  a  resolution  never  to  attend 
another.  In  pursuance  of  this  resolve  I  invariably 
declined  not  only  such  dinners  as  those  given  in  the 
City  but  more  select  dinners ;  even  including  those  of  the 
Royal  Academy,  which  are,  with  good  reason  I  believe, 
regarded  as  particularly  enjoyable.  Though  not  from 
deliberate  resolution,  I  also  fell  into  the  habit  of  neglecting 
invitations  to  public  soirees.  Those  of  the  Royal  Academy 
were  the  only  ones  which  I  went  to  a  few  times  during 
more  than  twenty  years.  Even  when  I  decided  to  go,  which 
occasionally  happened,  my  intention  melted  away  when 
the  hour  for  dressing  came. 

In  May  of  this  year  I  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Committee  of  the  Athenseum,  and  for  a  long  subsequent 
period  continued  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  administration 
of  the  Club.  I  say  an  active  part,  because  I  attended  the 
committee-meetings  with  regularity.  Save  when  I  was 
away  from  town,  I  believe  I  missed  only  one,  and  then 
forgetfulness  was  the  cause. 

Certain  traits  of  nature,  made  manifest  to  me  by 
experiences  of  myself  as  a  committee-man,  I  may  here  set 
down.  The  most  conspicuous  is  want  of  tact.  This  is 
an  inherited  deficiency.  The  Spencers  of  the  preceding 
generation  were  all  characterized  by  lack  of  reticence. 
Things  thought  were  habitually  said;  and  there  was  little 
prudence  in  the  expression  of  them.  My  mother  was 
distinguished  by  extreme  simple-mindedness :  so  much 
so  that,  unlike  women  in  general,  she  was  without  the 
thought  of  policy  in  her  dealings  with  other  persons. 
In  me  these  traits  were  united.  I  tended  habitually  to 
undisguised  utterance  of  ideas  and  feelings  :  the  results 
being  that  while  I  often  excited  opposition  from  not 
remembering  what   others  were  likely  to  feel,  I,  at  the 


Mt.  54.]  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  281 

game  time,  disclosed  my  own  intentions  in  cases  where 
concealment  of  them  was  needful  as  a  means  to  success. 

On  one  occasion  my  attention  was  irresistibly  drawn 
to  this  trait  and  its  effects.  Some  proposal — I  do  not 
remember  what — which  I  had  made  in  committee,  I  had 
urged  with  my  usual  bluntness ;  with  the  result  that  those 
whose  prejudices  I  had  not  duly  respected,  voted  against  me 
and  the  proposal  was  lost.  A  week  or  so  afterwards,  the 
late  Sir  Frederick  Elliot,  a  man  whose  official  life  had 
disciplined  him  in  cautiousness  of  expression,  and  who, 
judged  by  his  manner,  was  also  diplomatic  by  nature, 
brought  forward  substantially  the  same  proposal;  and, 
taking  care  not  to  tread  upon  anybody^s  toes,  he  carried 
it  without  difficulty.  But  though  I  recognized  the  lesson, 
it  wrought,  I  fancy,  little  or  no  alteration.  We  say  that 
experience  teaches ;  but  experience  is  practically  powerless 
to  change  by  its  teaching  any  marked  organic  tendencies. 
Let  me  add  that,  though  I  sometimes  failed  in  my  aims 
from  want  of  tact,  I  frequently  succeeded  by  persistence. 

The  term  of  service  on  the  committee  is  three  years,  and 
a  rule  provides  that  one  who  has  served  is  not  again 
eligible  until  after  the  lapse  of  a  year.  During  the  year 
which  intervened  between  my  two  terms  of  service,  I  was 
one  of  a  special  committee  appointed  at  the  annual  general 
meeting  to  investigate  a  matter  respecting  which  the 
committee  and  the  Club  at  large  differed.  Hence  resulted 
the  anomaly  that  I  was  concerned  with  Club-business  for 
seven  consecutive  years. 

While  speaking  of  committees  I  may  name  the  fact  that 
I  had  been,  for  some  time  before  this  date,  and  for  long  after- 
wards continued  to  be,  a  member  of  the  London  Library 
committee.  At  this  my  attendances  were  far  less  regular  : 
I  suppose,  in  part,  because  the  administrative  business, 
neither  so  extensive  nor  so  complex,  attracted  me  less. 

This    autumn    I   made    an    observation  that  interested 


282  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOaY.  [1874. 

me  much,  as  demonstrating  a  physical  truth  which  is 
diflBcult  to  believe. 

While  I  was  at  the  Dell  of  Abernethy  we  had  a  picnic 
on  the  shore  of  Loch  Garten,  some  four  or  five  miles  off. 
This  loch  is  from  half  a  mile  to  a  mile  long,  and  perhaps  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  broad.  A  breeze  of  moderate  strength 
was  blowing;  so  that,  on  the  sandy  beach  next  to  us,  there 
broke  small  waves,  say  of  eighteen  inches  wide  and  three 
inches  high.  After  our  picnic  we  rowed  towards  the  other 
end  of  the  loch.  As  we  approached  it  the  waves  diminished 
in  size,  gradually  becoming  ripples;  and  finally  we  came 
to  still  water.  On  arriving  at  this  glassy  surface  I  saw, 
to  my  great  surprise,  feeble  undulations,  discernible  only 
by  the  aid  of  reflections,  moving  in  a  direction  opposite  to 
the  wind.  No  other  origin  for  these  could  be  assigned 
than  the  recoil-waves  from  the  sandy  beach  at  the  opposite 
end,  which  had  persisted  through  all  the  intervening  rough 
water,  and  finally  made  their  re-appearance  in  this  remote 
smooth  water.  Many  must  have  occasionally  observed 
how,  when  a  breaker  bursts  against  a  sea-wall,  the  recoil- 
wave  rushes  out  seawards ;  and  some  have  learned  that  this 
wave  continues  its  progress  out  to  sea,  invisibly  modifying 
the  forms  of  the  incoming  waves,  until  at  a  great  distance 
it  is  dissipated  by  fluid  friction.  Though  theoretically 
accepted  by  me,  this  truth  had  been  but  vaguely  conceived. 
Now  it  was  brought  home  very  clearly. 

My  stay  at  Ardtornish  this  year  was  abridged  to  little 
more  than  a  fortnight;  for  I  was  due  at  Belfast  on  the  19th 
of  August.  The  British  Association  met  there.  Tyndall 
was  president;  and  I  felt  bound  to  be  present.  As  on  the 
occasion  of  the  meeting  at  Liverpool,  the  members  of  the  X 
Club,  with  their  wives,  made  a  family  party  at  the  chief 
hotel;  and  this  of  course  gave  an  enjoyable  character  to  our 
sojourn.  Many  will  remember  that  Prof.  Tyndall's  address, 
dealing  with  those  aspects  of  Science  which  bring  it  into 
relation  with  Theology,  was  a  very  bold  one,  and  produced 


JEt.  54.]  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  283 

a  strong  sensation  followed  by  a  good  deal  of  controversy. 
My  remembrance  of  the  address  is  further  strengthened  by 
a  personal  interest  it  had  for  me.  Some  passages  in  it 
referred  to  the  evolutionary  character  of  the  Principles  of 
Psychology,  and  aimed  at  correcting  current  misappre- 
hensions respecting  the  origin  of  the  evolutionary  doctrine, 
in  so  far  as  it  applies  to  Mind.  I  have  before  exemplified 
Prof.  Tyndall^s  chivalrous  desire  to  see  justice  done  where 
he  thinks  it  is  not  done,  and  it  was  here  manifested  on  my 
behalf.  Not  much  effect  was  produced,  however.  The 
public  mind,  difficult  to  impress,  having  once  taken  an 
impression,  retains  it  right  or  wrong,  and  resents  any  effort 
to  change  it. 

The  pleasures  of  my  stay  at  Belfast  were  increased  by  the 
presence  of  my  friend  Lott.  At  its  close  he  and  I  had  a 
further  week  or  ten  days  of  companionship  at  Llandudno  on 
our  way  south.  Departing  thence,  I  sojourned  for  a  while 
at  Standish  before  returning  to  London. 

Neither  correspondence  nor  memory  furnishes  me  with 
anything  to  set  down  until  the  close  of  the  year.  A  letter 
of  8.  December  says  : — 

"  I  am  dreadfully  bothered  with  an  increasing  business-correspondence,  and 
with  increasing  private  correspondence,  and  with  presentation  copies  of 
books.  I  am  now  deciding  to  do  the  replying  and  acknowledging  by  deputy, 
whenever  it  can  possibly  be  done.  One-third  to  one-half  of  my  morning 
has  been  of  late  cut  off  by  these  distractions. 

"Otherwise  things  are  going  on  remarkably  well.  The  second  volume  of 
the  French  translation  of  the  Psychology  is  out ;  and  I  have  also  recently 
got  the  German  translation  of  the  Education,  and  am  expecting  shortly  to 
have  their  translation  of  First  Principles.  " 

Winter  passed  and  the  early  spring  passed  without 
incident.  Here  is  a  passage  written  to  Youmans  on 
April  10,  1875 :— 

"  Thanks  for  your  untiring  advocacy,  and  for  your  defence  in  the  last 
number  of  the  Monthly.  It  is  droll  to  find  myself  described  by  some  as  not 
being  inductive,  while  by  others  I  am  blamed  for  overburdening  my  arguments 
with  illustrative  facts." 

And  here  is  another  from  a  letter  dated  April  14  : — 
"  Though  I  wrote  to  yuu  a  few  days  a^'o,  I  write  ri,f;ain  on  receiving  your  letter 


284  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  [1875. 

of  the  3rd,  to  Bay  how  glad  I  shall  be  to  see  you.  Irrespective  of  other  ends, 
I  doubt  not  you  •will  derive  physical  and  mental  benefits  fi-om  the  change  of 
scene  and  from  the  enforced  rest  of  the  voyage.  I  shall  be  in  town  till 
towards  the  end  of  July ;  after  which  date  I  shall  probably  be  away  for  some 
six  weeks,  so  that  if  you  come  in  May  there  will  be  some  six  weeks  during 
which  we  may  be  together  (for  of  course  I  shall  expect  you  to  come  and  stay 
at  Queen's  Gardens  as  my  guest)  and  there  will  be  a  further  interval  after  my 
return  to  town.  " 

This  programme  was  partially  carried  out :  he  arrived  on 
July  14,  and  joined  me  as  proposed. 


Very  little  more  has  to  be  said  concerning  the  incidents 
of  the  season.  There  were  the  usual  perturbations  of  health, 
and  short  absences  of  a  week  or  so  to  obtain,  partly  by  fresh 
air  and  partly  by  quiet,  better  nights  and  restored  power 
of  working.  Letters  show  that  during  two  such  absences 
in  February  and  May  I  was  at  Brighton ;  and  at  Easter 
I  was  at  Clifton,  where  I  was  joined  by  Lott. 

But  the  fact  perhaps  most  worth  mentioning  is  that  in 
May  I  commenced  dictating  the  rough  draft  of  this  auto- 
biography. How  came  I  to  take  such  a  step  at  so  relatively 
early  a  period  ?  may  be  asked.  The  cause  was  this.  Not 
long  before,  a  friend  referred  to  a  not  unimportant  scheme 
I  had  several  years  previously  suggested  to  him,  for  fur- 
thering a  public  movement  then  in  progress.  By  the  help 
of  his  reminder  I  recalled  the  incident ;  but  it  was  clear  to 
me  that,  had  it  not  been  for  his  reminder,  it  would  have 
disappeared  absolutely  from  my  memory.  There  after- 
wards resulted  the  reflection  that  if  a  biography  was  to  be 
written,  either  by  myself  or  any  one  else,  the  materials 
for  it  should  be  collected  at  once ;  otherwise  there  would 
probably  be  serious  omissions. 

"  But  why  a  biography  at  all?"  will  perhaps  be  asked. 
The  question  is  reasonable  enough,  considering  how 
often  I  have  uttered  unfavourable  opinions  concerning 
biography  at  large.  The  reply  is  that  in  these  days  of 
active  book-manufactnre,  when  there  are  so  many  men  each 


JEt.  55.]  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  285 

of  whom,  having  completed  and  sold  one  work,  forthwith 
casts  about  for  the  subject-matter  of  another,  no  one  whose 
name  has  been  much  before  the  public  can  escape  having 
his  life  written  :  if  he  does  not  do  it  himself  some  one  else 
will  do  it  for  him.  This  induction  from  current  experience 
brought  with  it  the  conclusion  that  in  either  case  it  was 
desirable  that  a  connected  narrative  of  events,  such  as  I 
alone  could  furnish  with  anything  like  completeness,  should 
be  written;  and  that  the  verifying  and  illustrative  materials 
should  be  put  in  order  along  with  it. 

How  to  execute  this  task  remained  for  some  time  a 
problem.  I  could  not  think  of  suspending  my  ordinary 
work  for  the  purpose — sacrificing  the  important  for  the 
relatively  unimportant.  And  yet,  if  I  postponed  setting 
down  these  biographical  memoranda  until  after  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy,  it  was  pretty  clear 
that  they  would  never  be  set  down  at  all.  At  length  I  hit 
upon  a  compromise.  Each  successive  week  I  prepared 
myself  by  looking  through  the  correspondence  and  docu- 
ments referring  to  the  period  to  be  dealt  with,  and  then, 
for  an  hour  on  Saturday  afternoon,  I  dictated  to  a  short- 
hand writer  :  narrating  in  brief  form  the  chief  events,  with 
my  comments  upon  them,  without  regard  to  literary  form 
or  even  correctness  of  expression.  The  transcribed  notes, 
which  the  shorthand  writer  handed  to  me  the  next  week  in 
the  shape  of  a  large-sized  copy  book  of  twenty  or  thirty 
pages,  I  took  from  him,  and  inserted  between  the  leaves  in 
their  respective  places  all  the  relevant  letters  and  other 
papers.  How  long  this  process  continued  I  cannot  remem- 
ber :  for  something  like  a  year  I  think.  Eventually  the 
narrative  was  brought  up  to  date  and  the  process  ceased. 

This  rough  draft,  with  its  incorporated  materials, 
remained  for  many  years  in  the  same  state;  changed 
only  by  an  occasional  addition,  and  in  a  few  places  by 
redictating  portions  in  somewhat  more  complete  forms.  It 
would  have  remained  in  this  state  to  the  present  time  had 


286  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  [1875. 

it  not  been  for  the  utter  breakdown  of  health  which  made 
it  impossible  to  do  any  but  the  lightest  work,  and  limited 
me  to  extremely  little  even  of  that. 

In  the  middle  of  July,  as  already  indicated,  arrived  my 
friend  Youmans  with  his  sister  and  nephew ;  and  a  week 
afterwards,  leaving  them  in  possession,  I  departed  for 
the  North. 

Little  need  be  said  concerning  my  month  at  Ardtornish. 
I  may  set  down,  however,  an  interesting  elucidation  of  a 
truth  in  optics  I  noted  while  there. 

Along  the  shore  of  Loch  Aline,  between  the  new  house 
and  the  ferry,  there  is  a  tract  of  shelving  beach  on  which 
grows  a  zone  of  bladder-weed,  covered  at  high  tide,  dry  at 
low  tide,  and  at  mid-tide  partially  floating,  in  such  wise 
that  the  upper  fronds  of  each  plant  lie  on  the  surface. 
As  we  drove  by  one  day,  when  a  fresh  breeze  was 
blowing  from  the  other  side  of  the  loch,  producing  waves 
of  moderate  size,  the  surfaces  of  which  were  of  course 
covered  by  wavelets  and  ripples,  my  attention  was  drawn 
to  the  fact  that  all  the  wavelets  and  ripples  were  stopped 
by  this  belt  formed  of  the  patches  of  partially-floating 
bladder-weed,  while  the  larger  undulations  passed  through 
this  belt,  and,  traversing  the  smooth  water  inside  of  it, 
reached  the  beach.  This  struck  me  as  illustrating  that 
which  is  said  to  happen  with  luminiferous  undulations. 
Passing  through  air  containing  impurities — dust,  smoke  or 
thick  vapour — the  shorter  among  these  are  stopped,  while 
the  longer  pass  through.  The  result  is  that  under  such  cir- 
cumstances the  Sun  appears  red  :  the  red  rays  being  those 
formed  of  the  longer  undulations.  Doubtless  the  waves 
are  of  utterly  different  natures,  so  that  nothing  more  than 
analogy  may  be  alleged ;  but  it  is  an  interesting  analogy. 

The  transition  from  the  scientific  to  the  comic  is  a 
violent  one ;  but  I  am  led  to  make  it  here  by  remembering 
that  during  my  stay  I  verified  a  rather  amusing  story  which 


^T.  55.]  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY  287 

dated  back  some  dozen  years  or  more.  The  head  game- 
keeper's son,  a  young  man  of  twenty,  was  quizzed  by  me 
one  day  when  we  were  out  fishing,  concerning  this  story 
of  his  boyhood;  and,  as  he  looked  sheepish  and  did  not 
deny  it,  I  presume  it  was  true.  At  the  time  in  question 
Lord  Kirkcaldy — a  very  unimposing  sample  of  humanity, 
which  added  somewhat  to  the  point  of  the  incident — was 
staying  at  Ardtornish  for  a  little  salmon-fishing.  One 
day  during  his  stay  this  gamekeeper's  son,  then  perhaps 
some  six  or  seven  years  of  age,  ran  in  to  his  mother 
exclaiming — "  O  mither,  mither,  I've  seen  the  Lord,  and 
he's  just  like  a  man  !  " 

Leaving  Ardtornish  towards  the  close  of  August  I  broke 
my  journey  south  by  a  week  at  Llandudno  and  reached 
London  early  in  September.  When  I  add  that  the  latter 
part  of  October  and  beginning  of  November  were  spent  at 
Standish,  I  have  sufiicently  indicated  my  autumn  doings. 

Late  in  the  autumn  my  friend  Youmans,  after  returning 
to  America,  sent  me  a  discouraging  account  of  himself. 
Already  extracts  from  my  letters  have  from  time  to  time 
shown  that  I  expostulated  with  him  for  his  disregard  alike 
of  health  and  of  personal  interests  while  pursuing  his  aims 
— aims  largely  directed  to  the  propagation  of  Evolution- 
doctrines  and  diffusion  of  my  works.  He  had  now 
illustrated  afresh  this  tendency  to  undue  self-sacrifice, 
and  I  wrote  to  him  strongly  on  the  subject.  My  letter, 
dated  18,  Dec,  while  it  may  serve  as  a  general  lesson,  I 
quote  here  partly  because  it  illustrates  this  trait  of  his 
nature,  and  partly  because  it  illustrates  a  trait  of  my 
nature — a  somewhat  too  candid  expression  of  opinions. 
"  Turning  to  your  letter,  let  me  say  first  that  I  have  regretted  greatly  to  have 
an  account  of  your  state  that  is  so  unsatisfactory,  alike  by  what  it  says  and 
by  what  it  implies.  To  think  that  you  should  have  come  over  here  mainly 
to  recruit,  and  now  that  you  should  be  apparently  no  better  than  when  you 
left ;  and  all  because  you  would  f,'o  on  working  and  worrying  instead  of 
resting!     Your  intention  to  bccaruful  now  amounts  to  notliing-you  have  all 


288  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  [1876. 

along  been  intending  that  and  doing  the  contrary.  That  you  will  either  cut 
short  your  life,  or  incapacitate  yourself,  is  an  inference  one  cannot  avoid 
drawing  ;  seeing  that  in  your  case,  as  in  a  host  of  other  cases,  experience 
seems  to  have  not  the  slightest  effect.  It  is  a  kind  of  work-drunkenness  ;  and 
you  seem  to  be  no  more  able  to  resist  the  temptation  than  the  dypsomaniac 
resists  alcohol.  Excuse  my  strong  expressions.  I  use  them  in  the  hope 
that  they  may  do  some  good,  though  it  is  a  very  faint  hope.  The  only 
course  which  could  give  me  any  confidence  that  you  will  not  bring  your  career 
of  usefulness  to  a  premature  close,  would  be  to  learn  that  you  had  put  your- 
self under  the  despotic  control  of  your  sister  ;  and  even  if  you  did  this,  I 
suspect  you  would  quickly  break  the  agreement  under  the  pressure  of  some 
fancied  necessity.  As  though  fulfilment  of  some  passing  purpose  wa-i 
necessary  and  maintenance  of  Hie  unnecessary  1  What  is  the  use  of  all  this 
propagation  of  knowledge,  if  it  is  to  end  in  such  results  ?  " 

Unhappily  the  opinion  above  expressed  that  he  would 
bring  his  life  to  a  premature  close  was  verified.  Though 
he  reached  the  age  of  sixty-six^  yet  that  his  death  at  that 
age  was  premature  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  both  his 
parents  were  then  alive. 

In  a  letter  to  him  written  ten  days  later,  I  find  the 
following  passage  about  another  matter  : — 
"  Since  I  wrote  I  received  some  news  from  Russia  which  will  interest  you. 
A  professor  at  Kiev  proposes,  in  conjunction  with  his  colleagues  and  pupils, 
to  translate  the  Descriptive  Sociology.  He  tells  me,  to  my  surprise,  that  all 
my  books  have  now  been  translated  into  Russian  with  the  exception  of  the 
Descriptive  Sociology,  which  will  thus  soon  be  added  to  the  list.  Further, 
he  tells  me  that  he  has  proposed  to  the  Historical  Society  of  Kiev  to  make  a 
like  classification  and  tabulation  of  Russian  history.  The  name  of  this 
Russian  is  Soutchitzici  (?) ". 

Whether  this  project  was  carried  out  I  could  not  at  iirst 
remember,  but  I  have  since  found  proof  that  it  was. 

"VVliile  I  am  quoting  from  letters  I  may  as  well  add  a 
passage  from  one  to  my  friend  Lott  dated  a  week  after, 
namely  Jan.  5,  1876.  This  I  give  chiefly  for  the  sake 
of  its  second  paragraph  : — 

"  I  am  sorry  to  hear  your  plans  are  interfered  with.  However,  next  week 
will  suit  me  just  as  well.  If  Mr.  Eai-p  is  sufllciently  recovered  you  might 
come  on  Saturday.  You  would  not,  indeed,  find  me  at  home  in  the  evening; 
for  we  shall  be  celebrating  our  hundredth  meeting  of  the  X  club  ;  but  Miss 
Sliickle  will  take  care  of  you  until  my  return. 

"I  am  glad  you  like  No.  40.  It  is  surprifing  what  an  effect  is  produced  on 
one  by  this  tracing  out  the  natural  history  of  beliefs.     I  feel,  even  myself, 


Mt.  56.]  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  289 

more  completely  out  of  the  wood  now  that  the  whole  thing  is  accounted  for  : 
not  having  been  conscious  that  I  remained  at  all  in  the  shade  of  the  wood, 
until  now  that  I  have  got  into  broad  daylight." 

Tlie  process  here  described  as  at  length  ended  had  been 
a  long  one,  for  it  commenced  when  I  was  in  my  teens. 

The  first  volume  of  the  Principles  of  Sociology  might 
have  been  issued  before  Midsummer  1876,  had  it  not 
been  for  the  discovery  of  a  serious  lacuna  in  my  original 
scheme.  Up  to  this  time  the  programme  of  the  Synthetic 
Philosophy,  issued  in  1860,  had  been  in  all  respects 
adhered  to ;  but  now  it  became  clear  that  an  addition  must 
be  made.  I  had,  as  most  do,  approached  the  subject  of 
Sociology  on  its  political  side;  and  though,  when  its  divisions 
were  set  down,  there  was  a  clear  recognition  of  sundry 
other  sides — the  Ecclesiastical,  the  Industrial,  and  so 
forth, — yet  all  of  these  were  what  may  be  distinguished  as 
the  public  sides  of  the  subject.  Sociology  in  fact,  as  we 
ordinarily  conceive  it,  is  concerned  exclusively  with  the 
phenomena  resulting  from  the  co-operation  of  citizens. 
But  now,  when  about  to  deal  with  institutions  of  this 
or  that  kind,  I  suddenly  became  aware  that  domestic 
institutions  had  to  be  dealt  with.  It  was  not  that  I 
accepted  in  full  the  views  of  Sir  Henry  Maine;  for  my 
studies  of  primitive  societies  had  familiarized  me  with  the 
truths  that  the  patriarchal  form  of  family  is  not  the 
earliest,  and  that  the  relations  of  parents  to  one  another 
and  to  children  have  sundry  more  archaic  forms.  But  I 
became  conscious  that  these  more  archaic  forms,  as  well 
as  the  more  developed  form  supposed  by  him  to  be 
universal,  influence  deeply  the  type  of  social  organization 
assumed.  Further,  reflection  made  it  clear  that  intrinsically 
as  well  as  extrinsically,  the  traits  of  its  family-life  form 
an  important  group  in  the  traits  presented  by  each 
society;  and  that  a  great  omission  had  been  made  in 
ignoring  them. 

The  result  was  that  in  the  spring  of  1876  I  began  to 

19 


290  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  [1876. 

prepare  myself  for  treating  this  topic;  and  a  further 
result  was  that  I  delayed  the  publication  of  Vol.  I  of 
the  Sociology  for  the  purpose  of  adding  to  it  the  new 
division  required :  a  course  which  I  have  since  regretted ; 
for  it  is  now  manifest  to  me  that  the  first  volume  ought 
to  have  included  the  Data  and  the  Inductions  only. 

Neither  letters  nor  documents  recall  anything  worthy 
of  record  during  the  season  of  1876 ;  and  I  pass  at  once 
to  the  latter  part  of  July,  when  I  left  for  the  North. 

I  had  been  told  of  good  fishing  in  the  Morar,  and 
while  staying  with  my  friends  at  the  Dell  of  Abernethy 
this  information  had  its  effect.  I  opened  negotiations 
with  the  factor  of  Lord  Lovat,  to  whom  the  north  bank  of 
the  river  belonged,  and  eventually  agreed  to  take  the 
fishing.  Ten  days  later  I  started  for  the  west.  The  drive 
from  Banavie  to  Arisaig  was  new  to  me;  and  though  I 
internally  grumbled  at  having  to  post  all  the  way  (more 
than  forty  miles  I  think),  yet  I  felt  before  the  day  was  over 
that  I  was  amply  repaid  by  the  scenery.  A  letter  describes 
the  drive  as  "the  most  beautiful  drive  in  the  kingdom  so  far 
as  I  have  seen."  As  I  approached  Arisaig  I  heard  that  Lord 
Lovat  was  in  advance  of  me;  and,  on  my  arrival,  found  the 
hotel  occupied  by  him  and  his  suite.  The  factor,  coming 
afterwards,  explained  that  Lord  Lovat,  somewhat  taken 
aback  that  his  fishing  had  been  let,  suggested  that  I  might 
like  to  try  the  river  for  a  few  days  before  finally  agreeing 
to  rent  it,  and  that  meanwhile  he  would  take  a  cast  himself. 
Of  course  I  assented ;  and  next  day,  not  wishing  to  interfere 
with  the  owner's  amusement,  I  postponed  going  over  to  the 
Morar,  which  is  some  miles  off,  till  the  evening  after  his 
return.  Here  I  found  myself  a  good  deal  deceived — 
not  by  the  untruth  of  statements  made  but  by  the  omission 
of  something  equally  true.  Success  quickly  proved  the 
presence  of  numerous  sea-trout ;  and  then,  just  below  the 
falls,  which  could  not  be  leapt  by  fish  for  want  of  water, 


Mt.  56.]  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  291 

I  had  remarkable  ocular  proof  of  the  presence  of  salmon. 
There,  in  a  smooth  back  water,  were  lying,  unconcealed  and 
nnalarmed,  half  a  dozen  salmon  and  a  score  sea-trout. 
While  sitting  on  an  overhanging  rock  with  feet  dangling 
above  the  water,  one  could  see  these  large  and  small  fish 
quietly  sailing  about  so  close  that  even  the  opening  and 
shutting  of  their  gills  was  visible.  The  place  was  a  kind 
of  natural  aquarium,  the  like  of  which  I  have  neither  seen 
nor  heard  of  elsewhere.  But  now  the  per  contra  facts  were 
that  the  fishable  part  of  the  river,  extending  from  the  falls 
to  the  sea,  was  less  than  two  hundred  yards  in  length,  and 
that  out  of  some  four  salmon-casts  in  that  distance  there 
was  but  one  at  which  there  seemed  a  fair  chance  of  landing 
a  fish  when  hooked.  Joining  these  facts  with  the  fact  that 
after  three  days'  stay  there  came  no  rain,  nor  at  the  end  of 
that  time  any  sign  of  rain,  I  decided  to  relinquish  the  agree- 
ment and  leave  Lord  Lovat  uninterfered  with. 

But  how  to  get  away  ?  I  discovered  that  next  day  a 
steamer  coming  south  would  touch  at  Armadale  in  Skye — a 
place  on  the  other  side  of  the  Sleat  Sound  about  a  dozen 
miles  higher  up.  Here  was  an  escape.  Next  morning 
a  fishing  boat  which  I  hired  took  me,  partly  sailing 
partly  rowing,  to  Armadale  bay  in  good  time.  Here 
occurred  an  instructive  incident  which  must  be  my  excuse 
for  the  foregoing  details.  "  Shall  we  land,  sir  ?  "  asked 
the  boatmen.  "No,"  I  replied.  "See,  there  is  the 
steamer  coming;  she  will  be  here  in  less  than  half  an 
hour."  So  the  men  rested  on  their  oars  in  the  midst  of 
the  bay.  As  the  steamer  approached  they  rowed  me  out 
to  meet  her,  and  my  ascent  up  her  side  was  watched  by 
two  friends  who  saluted  me  as  I  stepped  on  deck — a 
daughter  of  Prof.  Sellar  and  an  uncle  of  hers. 

Suppose  there  had  arisen  some  question  the  decision  of 
which  turned  on  my  presence  in  or  absence  from  Skye  that 
year.  My  oath  or  afiirmation  that  I  had  not  been  in  Skye 
mig'ht  have  been  met  by  two  witnesses  who  swore  that  they 

19* 


292  VOL.  I.  0¥  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  [1876. 

saw  me  come  out  of  Armadale  bay  in  Skye  and  get  on 
board  the  steamer :  the  visible  fact  testified  to  by  them 
being  identified  with  the  inference  that  I  had  come  from  the 
shore.  In  face  of  their  testimony  the  explanation  given  by 
me  wonld  have  been  taken  by  all  as  an  audacious  fiction. 

Three  days  later  I  was  at  Laidlawstiel,  the  residence^  or 
rather  one  of  the  residences,  on  the  estate  of  Mrs.  Mitchell 
(now  Lady  Keay) — a  lady  whose  scientific  proclivities  were 
shown  by  the  establishment  of  a  laboratory,  and  for 
whom  Prof.  Piazzi  Smyth  had  set  up  a  reflecting  telescope. 
The  place  stands  high  above  the  Tweed  nearly  opposite 
Ashestiel,  the  residence  of  Scott  at  one  time.  Here,  in  a 
pleasant  circle,  a  week  passed  away,  partly  filled  with  some 
lawn-tennis  playing  and  a  great  deal  of  talking — far  too 
much  indeed  for  my  welfare. 

Before  I  returned  to  town  a  few  days  were  spent  at 
Derby  with  my  friend  George  Holme,  who,  as  narrated  in 
an  early  chapter,  saved  me  from  drowning  when  I  was  a  boy. 
Other  few  days  were  spent  with  Lott  at  Quorndon,  or 
Quorn  as  it  is  commonly  called, — a  place  about  four  miles 
off,  which  serves  as  a  sanatorium  for  Derby,  and  where  my 
friend  had  now  taken  a  house,  in  which  he  continued  to 
reside  during  the  rest  of  his  life.  Home  was  reached 
early  in  September. 

Immediately  after  my  return  I  made  a  change  in  work- 
ing arrangements;  consequent,  partly,  on  the  desire  to 
relieve  Mr.  Collier  from  a  daily  task  too  mechanical  to 
be  properly  assigned  to  him.  As  explained  in  a  preceding 
chapter,  I  had,  in  earlier  years,  employed  a  youth  as 
amanuensis  ;  and  then,  after  1867,  when  Mr.  Duncan  came 
to  me  as  secretary,  he  was  occupied  every  morning  in 
writing  to  my  dictation  from  10  till  1,  and  devoted  the  rest 
of  the  day  to  the  Descriptive  Sociology.  This  routine  had 
continued  :  Mr.  Collier  fulfilling  the  same  divided  functions. 
For  some  time   he  had  been  occupied   with  the  French 


^T.  56.]  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  293 

Civilization;  and  it  now  seemed  to  me  undesirable,  alike  on 
his  own  account  and  on  mine,  that  lie  should  any  longer  be 
prevented  from  spending  all  his  energies  on  the  work  for 
which  his  powers  and  culture  fitted  him.  Having  become 
able  to  pay  for  more  help^  I  therefore  decided  to  emancipate 
him  from  his  morning's  clerk-like  duties^  and  to  employ 
some  one  else  to  discharge  them. 

The  experience  I  had  recently  had  while  dictating  to  a 
shorthand-writer  the  rough  draft  of  the  autobiography, 
opened  my  eyes  to  the  fact  that  I  might  effect  some  further 
economy  of  brain-power  by  having  an  amanuensis  who 
could  write  shorthand.  On  trial  I  found  that  my  antici- 
pations were  fulfilled;  and  thereafter  continued  to  benefit 
by  the  discovery.  For  letter- writing  the  advantages  proved 
great.  Choice  of  the  best  expressions  not  being  of 
moment,  a  marked  saving  of  time  and  effort  was  achieved. 
For  book- writing  the  advantage  was  by  no  means  so  great, 
but  still  appreciable.  Forms  of  sentences  having  to  be  as 
carefully  weighed  as  before,  the  required  pauses  remained 
unabridged;  and  I  habitually  kept  my  shorthand- writer 
waiting,  sometimes  for  long  intervals^  while  I  decided 
on  the  way  in  which  a  thought  should  be  framed.  But, 
though  thus  far  there  was  no  gain  of  time  or  of  effort, 
there  was  a  gain  in  the  rapidity  with  which  a  sentence, 
or  part  of  a  sentence,  once  fixed  upon,  could  be  dis- 
posed of.  With  a  longhand-writer  as  amanuensis,  a  few 
words  only  could  be  uttered  at  a  time ;  and  if  a  whole 
sentence,  or  large  part  of  a  sentence,  had  been  mentally 
prepared,  it  had  to  be  kept  before  the  mind  while  the 
successive  instalments  forming  it  were  written  down.  When, 
however,  the  amanuensis  was  a  shorthand- writer,  the  whole 
sentence,  or  such  part  of  the  sentence  as  was  ready,  could 
be  uttered  right  off,  and  the  attention  forthwith  occupied 
with  the  next.  A  little  time  was  thus  saved  and  a  great 
deal  of  attention  economized. 

Hereafter,    if    the    employment     of     shorthand-writers 


294  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  [1876. 

increases,  this  proceeding  will  seem  an  ordinary  one.  At 
the  time  of  which  I  speak  it  was  quite  exceptional  for  an 
author,  though  not  for  a  lawyer  or  merchant. 

During  the  subsequent  two  months  at  home,  considerable 
progi-ess  was  made  with  "  Domestic  Institutions,"  by 
the  completion  of  which  I  hoped  shortly  to  end  the  volume. 
But  either  because  of  my  unsatisfactory  autumn-holiday 
in  the  course  of  which  an  injury  to  my  foot  negatived  the 
usual  amount  of  walking,  or  because  I  applied  myself  too 
strenuously  to  work,  there  came,  before  the  middle  of 
November,  a  collapse,  and  I  had  to  desist.  My  friends  at 
Standish  had  recently  invited  me,  and  I  had  postponed 
acceptance.  Now,  however,  I  revoked  my  decision  and 
went:  not  with  a  beneficial  result,  as  is  shown  by  the 
following  extract : — 

'•Unfortunately  it  happened  that  my  friends  in  the  country  had  their  house 
full  of  guests,  and  that  there  were  large  and  elaborate  dinner  parties  nearly 
every  night  of  my  stay ;  so  that,  so  far  from  leading  a  quiet  life  as  I  had 
anticipated,  I  did  the  reverse,  and  ended  by  making  myself  worse  than  when 
I  went.  The  climax  of  the  mischief  was  brought  about  by  the  Bishop  of 
Gloucester,  who  would  get  me  into  metaphysical  controversy." 

To  this  last  sentence  there  hangs  a  tale,  or  rather  there 
hang  two  tales,  not  altogether  unamusing.  On  my  arrival 
I  found  that  some  of  the  family  and  guests  had  taken 
tickets  for  an  amateur  concert,  about  to  be  given  at  the 
Bishop's  Palace  at  Gloucester.  I  willingly  followed  their 
example  (by  doing  which,  however,  I  afterwards  found 
that  I  had  subscribed  half-a-guinea  to  the  funds  of  a 
Church  School !).  When,  on  the  appointed  day,  we  had 
taken  our  seats,  and  were  glancing  through  the  programme, 
I  was  alike  pleased  and  amused  to  find  among  the  pieces 
"  Mynheer  van  Dunck  " — pleased  because  the  music  is  fine, 
amused  because  of  the  incongruity  suggested  by  the 
words  of  the  glee,  which  I  here  give  for  the  benefit  of 
those  that  do  not  know  them.  If  I  recollect  rightly,  they 
run  thus  : — 

"  Mynheer  van  Dunck,  tho'  he  never  was  drunk,  sipped  brandy-and-water 


iET.  56.]  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  295 

gaily;  and  he  quenched  his  thirst  with  two  quarts  of  the  first,  to  a  pint  of  tha 
latter  daily ;  singing  '  Oh  that  a  Dutchman's  draught  might  be,  as  deep  as  tha 
rolling  Zuyder  Zee.' " 

It  stnick  me  that  it  would  be  droll  to  hear  these  words 
amid  the  ecclesiastical  surroundings,  sung  by  a  Cathedral 
Choir  aided  by  the  Bishop's  wife,  who  was  one  of  the  per- 
formers. I  was  disappointed,  however.  When  the  time 
came  there  was  a  good  deal  of  hesitation  and  moving  about 
on  the  platform,  and  another  glee  was  sung  instead.  A 
few  days  later,  the  Bishop  and  Mrs.  EUicott  were  among 
the  guests  at  one  of  the  county  dinner-parties  at  Standish  ; 
and,  being  seated  next  to  Mrs.  Ellicott  at  dinner,  I  took 
occasion  to  express  my  regret  at  the  substitution :  saying 
that  I  supposed  their  courage  had  failed  them  at  the  last 
moment.  "  Oh,  not  at  all,"  she  replied.  "  It  was  simply 
that  we  had  lost  the  music."  I  suspect,  however,  that 
the  loss  was  not  accidental;  but  that  the  Bishop,  having 
seen  the  programme  at  the  last  moment,  had  "  put  his  foot 
down,"  as  the  Americans  say,  and  caused  the  abstraction 
of  the  music. 

The  other  incident  concerned  the  Bishop  himself.  Being 
fond  of  walking,  he  had,  on  the  day  of  the  dinner-party, 
come  to  Standish  on  foot  in  the  course  of  the  afternoon. 
During  a  conversation  in  the  billiard-room,  reference  was 
made  to  the  fact  that  I  had  come  down  from  London  to 
recruit :  finding  myself  unable  to  work.  "Ah,"  remarked 
the  Bishop  to  our  host,  "perhaps  it's  quite  as  well;  because 
otherwise  he  would  have  been  promulgating  some  mischiev- 
ous doctrine  or  other."  I  replied  that,  as  the  Bishop 
supposed  the  doctrine  I  was  setting  forth  was  mischievous, 
he  would,  of  course,  be  prepared  to  defend  the  opposite 
doctrine.  His  assent  to  this  I  followed  up  by  saying  that, 
as  I  was  then  engaged  in  writing  a  chapter  showing  the 
great  superiority  of  monogamy,  he  was  bound  to  take  up 
the  defence  of  polygamy.  Finding  himself  thus  fixed,  the 
Bishop  jestingly  accepted  the  situation,  and  pointed  out 


296  VOL  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  [1877. 

that  at  any  rate  he  would  be  able  to  cite  the  example  of 
the  patriarchs  in  justification. 

The  close  of  the  year  was  reached  without  much  improve- 
ment in  health,  and  Christmas  week,  spent  with  my  friend 
Lott  at  Quom,  did  not  much  aid  recovery.  Throughout 
the  early  spring,  too,  I  struggled  with  my  work  to  small 
purpose.  In  March,  matters  were  made  considerably 
worse  by  an  imprudence.  I  unwisely  yielded  to  a  sugges- 
tion to  give  evidence  before  the  Copyright  Commission, 
then  sitting.  Partly  by  the  trouble  taken  in  preparing 
my  evidence,  and  partly  by  the  excitement  attendant  on 
giving  it  (which  I  did  in  great  fear  of  the  consequences, 
and  rushed  down  to  Brighton  by  the  next  train),  my 
nervous  symptoms  were  exacerbated ;  and,  as  may  be  sup- 
posed, they  were  not  much  improved  by  attending  a  second 
time  to  give  further  evidence.  At  Easter  another  sojourn 
at  Quom  did  but  little  towards  setting  me  right.  A  more 
drastic  measure  was  now  taken.  My  friend's  partner,  a 
keen  fisherman,  usually  paid  one  or  two  visits  to  Killin 
every  spring  for  the  purpose  of  salmon-trolling  on  Loch 
Tay.  I  was  pressed  to  accompany  him.  Being  unable  to 
work,  and  hoping  for  benefit,  I  agreed.  But  the  weather 
was  unpropitious.  Even  my  companion,  enthusiast  though 
he  was,  declined  to  sit  out  in  a  boat  in  the  midst  of  bitter 
East  winds  with  occasional  snow-showers.  Three  days  of 
this  weather  sent  me  south  in  disgust;  and,  as  the  following 
letter  to  Lott,  dated  16th  April,  shows,  I  had  no  reason  to 
regret  that  I  was  thus  driven  away  : — 

"  Thanks  to  Quom,  thanks  possibly  in  some  degree  to  the  few  days  in 
Scotland,  and  thanks  to  some  unknown  causes  which  I  cannot  understand, 
I  am  considerably  better  since  my  return  to  town.  From  time  to  time  one 
gets  rather  shaken  in  one's  determination  to  be  careful  in  diet  Ac,  by  finding 
the  benefits  of  carelessness.  I  continued  to  be  troubled  by  indigestion  while 
in  Scotland,  and  eyen  on  my  way  back  to  town.  Next  day  was  the  X.  dinner  ; 
and,  contrary  to  my  habit  for  a  month  or  six  weeks  previously,  I  took  a  sub- 
stantial miscellaneous  late  meal,  with  several  kinds  of  wine.  I  had  no 
indigestion  after  it,  and  have  been  cTceptioually  well  since.     This  is  one  of 


^T.  56.]  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  297 

the  many  illustrations  of  the  great  effect  of  mental  exhilaration.  I  know  no 
other  cause  for  this  odd  change. 

' '  It  was  well  I  was  driven  back  to  town  by  the  weather  when  I  was ;  for, 
quite  contrary  to  my  anticipation,  the  committee-meeting  for  selecting 
new  committee-men  was  fixed  hefort  instead  of  after  the  Kule  II  election, 
namely  yesterday ;  and,  had  I  stayed  in  Scotland  as  long  as  I  intended,  my 
plans  would  have  been  thwarted.  As  it  was,  they  have  answered  pretty  well. 
We  carried  eight  good  men:  none  of  them  being  of  the  public-service 
class,  and  four  of  them  being  among  those  I  had  fixed  upon ; — the  others 
equally  good. 

• '  There  was  a  still  further  reason  why  I  was  glad  that  I  returned  when  I 
did ;  for,  on  going  to  the  Athenaeum  on  Thursday,  I  found  lying  there  a  note 
from  Mr.  Gladstone,  asking  me  to  meet  Dr.  Schliemann  at  dinner  on  Saturday. 
As  you  may  suppose,  I  should  not  have  liked  to  miss  it.  The  party  was  a 
pleasant  one.  Beyond  the  guest  of  the  evening  there  were  present, 
Lowe,  Lubbock,  Forsyth  (the  member  for  Marylebone),  the  Duke  of  Argyll, 
Hayward  &c." 

The  second  of  the  above  paragraphs  refers  to  measures 
for  reinforcing  the  representatives  of  Science,  Literature, 
and  Art  on  the  committee,  with  the  view  of  preventing  the 
Rule  II.  elections  from  going  so  largely  in  favour  of  those 
whose  merit  was  "  distinguished  public  service  " — a  merit 
which  had  come  to  be  chiefly  found  among  retired  Anglo- 
Indian  officials.  Persisted  in  for  several  years,  the  course 
taken  completely  succeeded,  and  the  original  purpose  of  the 
elections  under  Rule  II.  was,  for  a  time  at  least,  fulfilled. 

The  only  further  incident  of  the  season  to  which  I  may 
refer,  was  my  attendance  at  some  of  the  Wagner  Concerts, 
given  in  illustration  of  his  musical  dramas,  at  the  Albert  Hall. 
One  of  my  attendances  was  in  company  with  some  friends 
who  had  a  box  ;  and,  as  we  came  down  stairs,  the  lady  of  the 
party  was  accosted  by  an  acquaintance  with  the  question — 
"Well,  how  did  you  like  it?^^  to  which  her  reply  was — "Oh, 
I  bore  it  pretty  well  " — a  reply  which  went  far  to  express 
my  own  feeling. 

Now-a-days  it  is  the  fashion  to  admire  Wagner,  and 
those  who  care  to  be  in  the  fashion  dare  not,  I  suppose, 
say  anything  in  disparagement  of  him.  As  the  reader 
must  have  pretty  clearly  seen,  it  is  my  habit  to  say  what 


298  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  [1877. 

I  tliink,  though  I  may  so  show  myself  one  of  a  very  small 
minority,  or  even  a  minority  of  one.  In  this  case,  however, 
the  dissentients  from  the  fashion  are  tolerably  numerous. 
I  discussed  the  question  with  the  Leweses,  who  had  been 
to  these  same  performances;  and  though  George  Eliot, 
herself  a  good  musician  and  a  cultivated  judge,  said  that 
the  music  pleased  her,  yet  she  confessed  that  it  was  lacking 
in  that  dramatic  character  which  it  especially  aims  at— did 
not  give  musical  form  to  the  feelings  which  the  words 
expressed.  I  remember  observing  of  two  songs,  quite 
different  in  the  sentiments  verbally  embodied,  that  the 
melodies  might  just  as  well  have  been  exchanged.  More- 
over, I  observed  that  the  musical  phrases  were  very 
generally  of  kinds  to  be  anticipated.  They  were  not  like 
those  of  true  musical  inspiration,  which  suddenly  discloses 
beautiful  combinations  one  would  never  have  conceived, 
but  they  were  of  familiar  types. 

On  this  occasion,  as  on  previous  occasions  when  I  listened 
to  Wagner's  music,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was  a 
great  artist  but  not  a  great  musician :  a  great  artist  in 
the  respect  that  he  understood  better  than  other  composers 
how  to  marshal  his  effects.  To  make  a  fine  work  of  art 
it  is  requisite  that  its  components  shall  be  arranged  in  such 
ways  as  to  yield  adequate  contrasts  of  all  orders:  large 
for  the  great  divisions  and  smaller  for  the  sub-divisions 
and  sub-sub-divisions;  and  that  there  shall  be  contrasts  not 
of  one  kind  only  but  of  many  kinds.  Wagner,  I  think,  saw 
this  more  clearly  than  his  predecessors.  Complex  music 
as  ordinarily  written  is  not  sufficiently  differentiated. 
Composers  for  the  orchestra  habitually  use  in  com- 
bination instruments  of  all  kinds,  having  tones  with 
timbres  quite  unlike  in  their  characters,  and  tones  which 
are  not  sufficiently  congruous  to  make  good  harmonies. 
Further,  by  constantly  employing  them  together,  they 
produce  a  monotony  of  general  effect,  which  would 
be  avoided  if   there  was   a   more   distinct  predominance 


Mt.  57.]  VOL  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  299 

now  of  tones  having  this  quality,  now  of  tones  having 
that.  Wagner — certainly  in  some  cases,  but  in  how  many 
I  cannot  say — specialized  the  uses  of  his  instruments 
more  than  most;  and  so  gave  more  marked  kinds  of 
effects,  each  having  its  distinctive  character,  and  all 
of  them  together  constituting  a  more  heterogeneous  whole. 
I  hope  that  his  example  will  be  followed  and  bettered. 

And  now,  to  my  great  satisfaction,  there  came,  at  the 
end  of  May  and  beginning  of  June,  the  completion  and 
publication  of  the  first  volume  of  The  Principles  of  Sociology. 
It  had  been  more  than  three  years  in  hand  :  its  progress 
having  been  hindered  in  large  measure  by  ill-health,  and  in 
some  measure  by  digressions.  There  had,  indeed,  been  a 
first  issue  of  the  volume  early  in  December  1873 ;  but  the 
final  chapters,  which  formed  a  somewhat  independent 
portion,  were  not  contained  in  it.  What  prompted  the 
premature  issue  I  cannot  now  remember. 

This  long  incubation  was  in  part  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
volume  was  much  larger  than  any  of  its  predecessors.  It 
extended  to  nearly  eight  hundred  pages,  and  contained  an 
immense  accumulation  of  facts,  the  incorporation  of  which 
had  been  a  laborious  business.  Mr.  Tedder,  librarian  of 
the  Athenaeum  Club,  who,  when  the  third  edition  was  in 
preparation,  verified  for  me  all  the  quotations  with  their 
references,  found  that  in  this  first  edition  "  there  were  2192 
references  to  the  379  works  quoted  "  (in  the  new  edition 
there  were  ''about  2500  references  to  455  works  ").  And 
here  I  may  note,  in  passing,  the  great  aid  rendered  me  by 
the  Descriptive  Sociology.  Evidently,  had  it  not  been  for 
that  compilation,  the  gathering  together  of  so  great  a  mass 
of  evidence  would  have  been  impracticable. 

With  the  ending  of  this  volume  came  a  decision  to 
change  my  mode  of  publication.  Forty-four  numbers  of 
the  serial  had  now  been  issued;  making,  with  certain 
occasional  extra  portions  which  were  included,  about  three 


300  VOL.  I.  OF  THE  SOCIOLOGY.  [1877. 

thousand  six  hundred  pages  thus  covered :  a  longer 
continuance  than  might  have  been  anticipated.  But  the 
motive  for  this  mode  of  publication  had  now  become 
relatively  weak.  It  is  true  that,  by  giving  up  the 
distribution  to  subscribers,  I  sacrificed  perhaps  some  fifty 
pounds  a  year.  This  sacrifice  was,  however,  of  less  moment 
to  me  than  was  the  economy  of  time  and  attention.  Bach 
number  of  the  serial  had  entailed  a  set  of  transactions  with 
printer,  binder,  and  publisher ;  and  there  were  other  small 
worries  attendant  on  the  frequently  recurring  issues. 
To  avoid  all  these  evils  I  willingly  submitted  to  some 
pecuniary  loss.  With  No.  44  was  therefore  sent  round  a 
notice  of  discontinuance. 

As  intimated  in  a  preceding  chapter,  I  eventually 
resumed  the  practice  of  distributing  copies  of  books  to  the 
press,  and  did  this  with  the  first  volume  of  The  Principles  of 
Sociology.  The  reasons,  which  I  could  not  then  give 
without  forestalling  the  narrative,  I  am  able  to  give  now. 
The  first  was  that  T7ie  Study  of  Sociology,  of  which 
a  qualified  copyright  was  in  the  hands  of  the  publishers, 
was  of  course  sent  out  by  them  after  their  ordinary 
habit.  The  second  was  that  the  successive  numbers 
of  the  Descriptive  Sociology  had  also  to  be  sent  out; 
since  the  interests  of  the  compilers  apparently  dictated 
a  pursuance  of  the  usual  course.  To  have  withheld  volumes 
belonging  to  my  series  while  these  other  volumes  were 
subjected  to  criticism,  would  inevitably  have  caused 
misinterpretations.  Hence  I  was  in  a  manner  compelled 
acrain  to  do  as  others  do. 


CHAPTER  LIV. 
A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES. 

1877—78.     ^t.  57—58. 

"While  -words  are  necessary  aids  to  all  thoughts  save 
very  simple  ones^  they  are  impediments  to  correct  think- 
ing. Every  word  carries  with  it  a  cluster  of  associations 
determined  by  its  most  familiar  uses,  and  these  associa- 
tions, often  inappropriate  to  the  particular  case  in  which 
the  word  is  being  used,  distort  more  or  less  the  image  it 
calls  up.  An  instance  of  this  is  furnished  to  me  by  an 
incident  which  occurred  when  about  to  commence  my 
next  volume. 

Government,  conceived  apart  from  any  particular  species 
of  it,  is  a  form  of  control.  But,  when  we  think  of  govern- 
ment, we  instantly  think  of  a  ministry,  a  legislature,  laws, 
and  police — ^we  think  of  that  particular  kind  of  government 
made  dominant  in  consciousness  by  the  reading  of  news- 
papers and  by  conversation  over  dinner-tables.  If,  on 
occasion,  we  extend  the  conception  of  government  so  as 
to  include  the  control  exercised  over  men  by  clergy, 
creeds,  and  religious  observances,  it  is  rather  by  deliberate 
analysis  than  by  spontaneous  association  that  we  are  led 
to  do  this.  And  neither  spontaneously  nor  after  con- 
sideration do  we  habitually  include  in  our  conception  of 
government  the  regulative  influence  of  usages,  manners, 
ceremonies;  though,  as  measured  by  its  effects  on  men's 
conduct  from    hour  to  hour,  this    kind   of   government  is 


302  A  SEEIES  OF  ARTICLES.  [1877. 

more  powerful  than  any  other.  While  I  was  not  so 
swayed  by  current  ideas  as  to  ignore  the  governmental 
nature  of  ceremonies,  I  was  swayed  to  the  extent  of 
under-estimating  its  relative  importance.  Hence,  in  the 
programme  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy,  the  divisions 
III,  IV,  and  V,  of  the  Principles  of  Sociology,  stood  in 
the  order  Political,  Ecclesiastical,  Ceremonial ;  and  in  this 
order  I  was  about  to  write  them. 

But  the  process  of  reading  and  arranging  my  memo- 
randa brought  with  it  a  revelation.  There  dawned 
upon  me  the  truth  that  political  government  is  neither 
the  earliest  nor  the  most  general;  but  that,  in  order  of 
evolution,  and  in  order  of  generality,  ceremonial  govern- 
ment precedes  it.  There  are  small  social  groups  without 
any  kind  of  political  control;  but  there  are  none  without 
that  control  which  is  exercised  by  established  modes  of 
behaviour  between  man  and  man.  Even  among  the 
rudest  savages  there  are  peremptory  rules  of  inter- 
course— rules  more  peremptory,  indeed,  than  those  existing 
among  the  civilized.  Thus  it  became  manifest  to  me 
that  Ceremonial  Institutions  stand  first;  and  there  was  a 
resulting  change  in  the  order  of  my  work. 

In  what  manner  to  publish  was  a  question  which  now 
arose.  No  longer  tied  to  a  serial  issue,  but  proposing  to 
issue  the  remaining  divisions  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy 
in  volumes,  I  still  had  to  choose  between  certain  alter- 
natives. I  might  continue  writing,  and  make  no  sign 
until  the  second  volume  was  completed ;  or  I  might  publish 
instalments  of  it  in  the  shape  of  magazine-articles. 

This  last  course  was  one  which  I  should  probably  not 
have  thought  of,  had  not  a  preceding  experience 
suggested  it.  The  Study  of  Sociology  made  its  first 
appearance  as  a  series  of  articles  in  the  Contemporary 
Review.  Why  should  I  not  in  like  manner  bring  out 
Ceremonial  Institutions   chapter  by  chat)ter  ?     In  a  letter 


iET.  57.]  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES.  803 

to  Youmans,  dated  May  26.  1877,  I  find   the   following 
passage  referring  to  the  matter : — 

"I  think  of  beginning  with  the  division  treating  of  Ceremonial  Institutions, 
and,  in  connexion  with  this,  am  entertaining  the  thought  of  preliminary 
publication  in  chapters.  The  subjects  will  be  popular  and  novel,  as  well  as 
instructive,  and  will  bear  detachment  in  the  shape  of  magazine-articles, 
under  the  titles  of  "Mutilations,"  "Presents,"  "Obeisances,"  "Saluta- 
tions," "  Titles,"  "  Badges,"  "  Dresses  "  Ac.  I  shall  probably  propose 
them  to  Morley  for  the  Fortnightly,  and  they  would  probably  suit  you  also." 
Before  anything  was  settled  there  presented  itself  the 
further  question — Why  should  the  serial  publication  be 
limited  to  England  and  America?  Why  not  publish  at 
the  same  time  in  periodicals  on  the  Continent  ?  Trans- 
lations of  my  books  had  made  my  name  known  abroad ; 
and  it  occurred  to  me  as  possible  that  editors  would 
like  to  have  early  proofs  of  the  articles  sent  them  in 
time  for  translation^  so  that  they  might  be  issued  in 
their  respective  magazines  when  they  were  issued  here. 
My  anticipation  proved  not  ill-founded;  and  arrange- 
ments were  accordingly  made  such  that,  as  the  successive 
chapters  were  published  in  England  and  America,  they 
were  simultaneously  published  in  France,  Germany,  Italy, 
Hungary,  and  Russia. 

None  of  these  chapters  were,  however,  as  yet  written ; 
and  it  was  only  after  the  lapse  of  some  six  months, 
occupied  in  preparing  them,  that  the  publication  thus 
described  commenced. 

During  this  summer,  as  during  the  preceding  summer, 
several  picnic  water-parties  had  been  given  by  my 
friends  the  Potters  on  the  Thames  above  Taplow — chiefly 
in  the  grounds  of  the  Duke  of  Sutherland,  where  a 
picturesque  cottage  by  the  water-side  has  been  pro- 
vided for  those  who,  on  such  occasions,  obtain  permission 
to  use  it.  Picnics  are  about  the  most  enjoyable  of  social 
gatherings,  and  these  had  been  very  pleasant. 

Why  should  not  I  give  a  picnic  ?  was  a  question  that 
resulted.    Entertainments  of  friends  had,  up  to  this  time. 


304  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES.  [1877. 

been  limited,  first  of  all  to  occasional  dinners  given  at 
an  hotel;  afterwards  to  dinners  given  at  the  Athenaeum, 
which  were  necessarily  restricted  to  members ;  and  only  in 
more  recent  years,  when  I  had  come  to  have  adequate 
facilities,  at  Queen's  Gardens.  Of  course,  among  the 
friends  who  came  to  these  parties,  there  were  no  ladies. 
But  to  a  picnic  ladies  in  due  proportion  might  be  invited. 
This  consideration  furnished  a  motive  enforcing  others 
that  arose;    and  a  picnic  was  decided  upon. 

St.  George's  Hill,  Weybridge,  was  the  place  I  fixed 
upon ;  and,  having  obtained  permission  from  Admiral 
Egerton  to  do  so,  I  there,  in  July,  assembled  a  number 
of  friends — between  a  dozen  and  twenty  I  think.  The 
experiment  was  a  success,  but  it  created  considerable 
surprise.  One  of  the  ladies,  I  remember,  could  not 
refrain  from  expressing  her  astonishment  —  ''A  phi- 
losopher, and  give  a  picnic  !  "  She  exhibited  afresh  what 
I  have  before  remarked  on  :  she  identified  philosophy 
with  disregard  of  pains  and  contempt  for  pleasures. 

Picnics  generally  drag  a  little  towards  the  close;  and 
to  avoid  the  dragging  I  adopted  the  device  of  changing 
the  scene.  The  carriages  were  ordered  to  fetch  us 
between  five  and  six,  and  in  them  we  drove  to  the  Oat- 
lands-Park  Hotel.  After  an  hour  or  so  spent  by  some 
in  playing  a  game  of  one  or  other  kind,  and  by  some 
in  rambling  about  the  grounds,  we  went  indoors  for  a 
^'high  tea".  The  animation  was  thus  kept  up  to  the 
last.  A  like  routine  was  followed  on  subsequent  occa- 
sions, which  recurred  annually  until  my  bad  health 
compelled  desistance. 

A  few  weeks  earlier  than  this  first  picnic,  I  had  passed  by 
Weybridge  on  my  way  to  Godalming  and  Witley,  where  the 
Leweses  had  just  bought  a  country  house.  They  presently 
derived  much  benefit  in  health  from  it :  not  wholly  from 
the  fresh  air,  but  partly  from  taking  to  an  outdoor  game. 
Often  when  at  the  Priory,  I  had  urged  them  not  to  spend 


iET.  57.]  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES.  305 

their  evenings  in  reading  aloud^  but  to  find  some  indoor 
amusement ;  and  I  suggested  a  billiard-table  as  a  resource. 
They  were  deaf  to  my  arguments.  Soon  after  they  bought 
the  house  at  Witley,  however,  a  letter  from  Lewes  told  me 
that  they  had  been  following,  if  not  the  letter,  yet  the  spirit 
of  my  advice,  and  had  taken  to  lawn-tennis,  with  the  effect 
of  improving  their  physical  state.  It  is  a  great  mistake 
for  adults,  and  especially  for  adults  who  work  their  brains 
much,  to  give  up  sports  and  games.  The  maxim  on  which 
I  have  acted,  and  the  maxim  which  I  have  often  commended 
to  my  friends  is — Be  a  boy  as  long  as  you  can. 

This  mention  of  a  letter  from  Lewes  calls  to  mind  an 
earlier  one  in  which  he  gave  me  a  fact  that  bears  upon  a 
question  recently  discussed — the  question  whether  writers 
of  fiction  feel  much  sympathy  with  their  characters  :  the 
consensiLS  of  opinion  appearing  to  be  that  they  do.  Certainly 
George  Eliot  did.  Clear  proof  was  given  to  me  by  a 
passage  in  the  letter  I  have  referred  to,  which  ran  : — 
"  Marian  is  in  the  next  room  crying  over  the  distresses  of 
her  young  people." 

Two  or  three  incidents  of  interest  dating  in  the  autumn 
of  this  year,  sufficiently  justify  an  account  of  my  doings 
during  it. 

Rheumatism,  which  had  been  troublesome  for  some  time, 
prompted  me  to  visit  Buxton  on  my  way  North.  In  the 
train  which  took  me  there  about  the  middle  of  July,  were 
Prof.  Goldwin  Smith  and  his  wife,  who  were  bound  for  the 
same  place  with  a  view  to  benefiting  Mrs.  Smith's  health. 
It  happened  that  we  went  to  the  same  hotel.  The  result 
was  that  I  saw  a  good  deal  of  them,  and  had  many  pleasant 
talks  during  my  ten  days'  stay.  I  have  never  been  able  to 
understand  him  :  the  manifestations  of  nature  on  different 
occasions  having  been  so  widely  unlike.  Wben,  in  1861,  a 
relapse  obliged  me  to  issue  a  notice  that  the  next  number 
of   my    serial   must   be   postponed,    and   that   subsequent 

20 


306  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES.  [1877. 

numbers  would  appear  at  irregular  intervals,  Prof.  Goldwin 
Smith  wrote  me  a  letter  of  condolence.  From  liim  alone, 
out  of  450  subscribers,  there  came  this  mark  of  sympathy 
— a  mark  of  sympathy  the  more  surprising,  because 
we  were  but  slightly  acquainted  and  he  was  theologically 
an  antagonist.  On  the  other  hand,  when,  after  the  Data 
of  Ethics  was  published,  he  commented  upon  it  in  the 
Contemporary  Review,  he  made  misrepresentations  so  grave, 
and,  it  seemed  to  me,  so  inexcusable,  that  I  had  to  expose 
them  in  a  subsequent  number  of  that  periodical.  How  to 
reconcile  the  two  traits  of  character  thus  implied  has  always 
been  a  puzzle  to  me.  I  can  only  suppose  that  he  does  not 
perceive  the  gravity  of  the  statements  he  makes. 

From  Buxton  I  betook  myself  to  Whitby :  being  prompted 
by  the  prospect  of  companionship  with  the  Huxleys,  who 
were  about  to  spend  their  autumn  there.  Unfortunately 
the  greater  part  of  my  stay  passed  before  they  arrived; 
and  the  search  for  ammonites,  for  which  the  place  is  famed, 
did  not  much  console  me.  One  incident  has  remained  in 
my  memory,  and  is  worth  recording.  Seating  himself  at 
the  same  table  at  the  hotel  one  day,  a  clergyman  of 
advanced  years  entered  into  conversation  with  me  over  our 
dinner.  It  turned  out  that  he  had,  when  young,  resided  in 
or  near  Derby,  and  had  known  my  father.  This  disclosure 
led  to  friendly  talk,  in  the  course  of  which  he  remarked  on 
the  great  change  which  had  taken  place  in  the  general 
state  of  men's  minds  during  his  life.  He  said  that,  whereas 
in  his  early  days  indifference  was  the  rule,  nowadays  every- 
body is  in  earnest  about  something  or  other.  The  contrast 
struck  me  as  one  of  great  significance. 

An  excursion-steamer  by-and-by  took  me  to  Scarborough; 
whence,  after  a  time,  I  departed  for  the  North  :  staying 
a  day  at  Edinburgh  to  see  Masson,  and  then,  after  a  short 
pause  at  Innellan,  proceeding  to  Ardtornish,  where  the 
record  shows  I  arrived  on  August  15. 

Have  I,  or  have  I  not,  named  the  fact  that  yachting  had 


iEx.  57.]  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES.  307 

become  one  of  tie  recreations  at  Ardtornish.  Mr.  Valen- 
tine Smith,  to  whom  the  estates  had  descended  on  his 
father's  death,  had  built  himself  a  fine  steam-yacht  of 
450  tons  burthen,  the  ''  Dobhran  "  (pronounced  Doran,  the 
Gaelic  name  for  a  sea-otter)  ;  and  excursions  in  this 
varied  the  routine  of  fishing,  grouse-shooting,  and  deer- 
stalking. Two  extensive  ones  were  made  this  season,  the 
last  of  which  ended  in  a  catastrophe.  Taking  our  course 
up  the  Sleat  Sound,  we  had  coasted  the  western  side  of 
Skye  as  far  as  Dunvegan;  and,  anchoring  in  the  loch  for  the 
night,  had  visited  the  ancient  castle,  where  the  honours  were 
done  by  Miss  McLeod — a  polished  old  lady  whose  presence 
in  so  wild  and  remote  a  region  seemed  anomalous.  Next 
day  we  steamed  along  the  northern  coast  of  the  island, 
and  onwards  to  Gairloch  ;  and  then,  taking  to  a  wagonette 
provided  by  our  host,  we  drove  along  the  shore  of  Loch 
Maree  and  through  Glen  Torridon  :  going  on  board  the 
yacht  in  Loch  Torridon,  where  it  had  been  sent  round 
to  meet  us.  The  following  morning  saw  us  going  South 
between  the  island  of  Raasay  and  the  mainland ;  and  now 
came  the  disaster.  Mr.  Smith  and  the  captain  had  gone 
below  to  consult  the  charts  before  entering  Loch  Carron  : 
leaving  the  vessel  in  the  charge  of  the  mate,  with  directions 
respecting  his  course.  But  the  mate,  thinking  he  could 
make  a  short  cut,  quickly  put  an  end  to  our  cruise.  The 
following  letter  to  Lott,  dated  9  Sept.  1877,  tells  what 
happened : — 

"  In  the  papers  of  about  a  week  ago,  you  might  have  seen  the  brief  account 
of  the  wreck  of  the  steam-yacht  Dobhran  on  a  sunken  rook  near  the  shore  of 
ApplecroBS.  This  was  the  yacht  of  my  friend  here,  Valentine  Smith.  There 
were  eight  of  us,  besides  a  crew  of  21.  We  had  been  cruising  about  Skye, 
Dunvegan,  Gairloch,  Torridon,  and  were  coming  south  to  Loch  Carron,  when 
the  mate  brought  us  to  grief.  The  vessel  struck  and  heeled  over  to  about 
45°  forthwith,  and  her  stern  began  to  sink.  We  all  got  into  the  boats  safely 
in  about  five  minutes.  She  is  still  on  the  rocks,  and  the  insurers  are  trying 
to  raise  her  and  will  probably  succeed.  She  cost  about  £20,000  and  is 
insured  for  £15,000." 

Having  all  got  safely  into  the  boats,  wc  hung  around  for 

20* 


308  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES.  [1877. 

some  time  to  see  what  would  happen :  some  of  the  sailors 
fearing  that  the  vessel,  which  was  continuing  to  blow  off 
steam,  would  explode  (but  with  what  reason  I  could  not 
understand),  and  others  fearing  that  she  would  slip  off  the 
rock  and  go  down.  Spite  of  all  protests,  Mr.  Smith,  with 
the  daring  characteristic  of  the  family,  insisted  on  going 
on  board  again  to  get  the  ship's  papers  and  other  valuables; 
and  presently  returned,  bringing,  among  other  things,  a 
quantity  of  wraps  for  the  ladies.  After  a  time  we  were 
taken  on  to  Strome  Ferry  by  another  yacht,  and,  our  host 
and  his  cousin  remaining  behind  to  look  after  the  wrecked 
vessel,  the  rest  of  us  made  the  best  of  our  way  back 
to  Ardtornish.  Eventually  the  insurers  succeeded  in 
getting  off  the  "Dobhran".  She  was  duly  repaired  and 
has  since  led  an  active  life  every  season. 

The  record  kept  at  Ardtornish  shows  that  I  left  that 
place  on  Sept.  13,  and,  I  suppose,  returned  straight  to  town. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  year  little  occurred  calling 
for  mention.  My  daily  routine  was  broken  by  a  short  stay 
at  Wykehurst,  and  a  longer  one  at  Standish,  and  there  also 
occurred  a  visit  from  my  friend  Youmans.  A  letter  to  him 
written  on  Dec.  17,  after  his  return  to  America,  contains 
a  quotable  passage  : — 

"  About  ten  days  ago  I  received  from  Russia  a  copy  of  a  Russian  translation 
of  No.  I.  of  the  Descriptive  Sociology — "  English  ".  I  was  at  first  puzzled  to 
make  out  what  it  was — whether  it  was  the  Descriptive  Sociology  for  Russia 
which  they  proposed  to  undertake,  or  whether  it  was  a  translation  ;  but  com- 
parison of  dates,  divisions  and  names,  finally  made  it  clear  that  it  was  a 
translation.    What  a  go-a-head  people  they  are  I  " 

This  was  the  translation  referred  to  in  an  extract  some 
time  since  given,  which  indicated  that  the  professors  of  the 
University  of  Kiev  were  about  to  undertake  it.  Comment- 
ing on  the  mental  inertness  of  most  people  here,  a  Russian 
once  told  me  that  in  his  country  the  young  men  starve 
themselves  to  buy  books  :  a  fact  which  seems  related  to 
that  great  receptivity  which  these  professors  exemplified. 


^T.  57.]  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES.  309 

Certainly  tlieir  proceeding  implies  a  strange  contrast 
between  the  appreciation  of  the  Descriptive  Sociology  in 
Russia  and  its  non-appreciation  in  Britain. 

Whether  it  was  during  this  autumn,  or  whether  it  was  at 
an  earlier  period,  that  I  decided  to  have  a  set  of  my  books 
permanently  bound,  I  cannot  now  remember ;  but  the  inci- 
dent resulting  from  the  decision  remains  the  same  in  either 
case.  "  Why  should  I  not  treat  myself  to  copies  in  hand- 
some bindings  ? "  I  asked.  So  I  went  to  the  binders  to 
consult  and  order.  Various  samples  of  leather  were  shown 
to  me.  Some  I  objected  to  as  unfit  in  colour — too  gay 
perhaps,  or  too  sombre ;  while  this  was  too  dark,  and  that 
too  light.  At  length  the  manager,  seeing  the  kind  of  thing 
I  wanted,  put  his  mouth  to  the  speaking  tube  and  called — 
"Mr.  Jones,  send  me  some  light  divinity  calf".  The 
sample  brought  down  proved  to  be  just  the  thing  I 
wanted ;  and,  accordingly,  in  "  light  divinity  calf "  my 
books  were  bound. 

The  year  1878  opened  for  me  with  a  serious  illness.     A 

letter  dated  Feb.  16,  concerning  it,  I  quote  chiefly  because 

it  serves  to  explain  the  step  I  took  the  winter  after : — 

"  Perhaps  I  am  the  more  apt  to  put  this  construction  on  the  matter 
[inferring  Youmans'  ilkiess  from  his  silence]  because  I  have  myself  been 
seriously  unweU  since  I  wrote  last.  More  than  a  month  ago,  I  got  one  chill 
upon  another,  and,  mismanaging  things,  got  into  a  state  of  pyrexia — pulse 
high,  temperature  over  100 — and  passed  eleven  days  indoors :  the  most 
miserable  eleven  days  I  remember  ;  for,  upon  the  whole,  my  life  thus  far  has 
been  tolerably  free  from  illnesses  that  have  kept  me  within  doors .... 
"  As  I  was  saying  to  the  doctor,  who  has  just  now  left  me,  I  begin  to  find 
more  and  more  difficulty  in  reconciling  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral 
requirements  of  my  life.  More  and  more  each  winter  there  is  forced  upon 
me  the  experience  that  five  months  of  bad  weather, — cold,  wet,  gloomy, 
relaxing,  by  turns — is  trying  to  my  system,  and  that  I  profit  greatly  by  getting 
away  to  some  sunnier  and  drier  region  on  the  South  Coast  of  England,  and 
perhaps  should  do  the  like  still  better  on  the  South  Coast  of  Europe,  But 
the  difficulty  of  meeting  the  mental  requirements  is  insuperable.  I  cannot 
take  my  friends  with  me  ;  and  in  the  absence  of  ability  to  pass  the  time  in 
reading  to  any  extent,  I  get  dreadfully  bored  ;  so  that  when  I  go  away  for  a 


310  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES.  [1878. 

week,  and  have  profited  by  the  better  sleeping  and  other  physical  advan- 
tages, I  always  rejoice  greatly  when  the  last  days  come,  enabling  me  to 
return  to  town  from  my  wearisome  banishment.  I  really  cannot  see  how  I 
am  to  manage  matters :  having  to  choose,  on  the  one  hand,  between  the 
physical  mischiefs  of  a  winter  in  London,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  delay 
of  work  and  moral  depression  resulting  from  a  winter  spent  elsewhere,  in  the 
absence  of  friends  about  me  I  care  for,  and  in  the  absence  of  those  occupations 
which  enable  me  to  kill  time." 

The  sequence  of  this  illness  was  a  ten-days  stay  at 
Brighton  to  recruit.  Entries  in  my  diary  show  that  a 
fortnight  after  my  return  came  another  week  indoors, 
implying  that  my  state  was  still  unsatisfactory. 

Two  extracts  from  letters  dated  respectively  May  10  and 
May  15,  may  fitly  be  given  here.  The  first  shows  the  com- 
mencement of  a  task  which  was  slowly  completed  in  the 
course  of  some  years  : — 

"  Talking  of  occupying  greater  space,  I  took  up  a  while  since  the  first  volume 
of  the  Sociology,  and,  on  beginning  to  re-read  the  earlier  part,  found  that 
there  was  much  that  could  be  condensed ;  not  by  omitting  anything,  but  by 
cutting  out  superfluous  qualifications  and  clauses  that  were  entirely  unim- 
portant. I  have  gone  through  several  chapters,  and  on  averaging  them  I 
conclude  that  I  can  economize  to  something  like  the  extent  of  three  lines  a 
page ;  and  this  will,  I  think,  effect  an  abridgment  of  some  60  or  70  pages  on 
the  whole  volume.  I  feel  alike  pleased  and  disgusted  with  this  result — 
pleased  that  there  is  so  much  room  for  improvement,  and  disgusted  that  the 
improvement  is  called  for." 

The  second  extract  concerns  a  matter  of  more  interest : 
to  me  at  least,  if  not  to  others  : — 

"  I  think  you  take  in  the  Revue  Scientifiqne.  Just  look  at  No.  45,  for  11  May, 
1878,  which  I  have  just  received.  You  will  find  in  it  an  Essay  by  M.  Paul- 
han,  entitled  "Le  Progres,  d'apr^s  M.  Herbert  Spencer  ",  which  is  a  review 
based  upon  the  translation  of  the  Essay  by  M.  Burdeau.  It  has  for  me,  and 
possibly  will  have  for  you,  a  certain  interest  as  pointing  out  what  I  had  for- 
gotten— the  extent  to  which  the  general  theory  of  Evolution,  as  set  forth  in 
First  Principles,  is  indicated  in  "  Progress,  its  Law  and  Cause  ",  in  other 
directions  beyond  the  transformation  of  the  homogeneous  into  the  hetero- 
geneous :  how  segregation  and  integration  and  coherence  are  incidentally 
and  vaguely  implied;  and  how  also  what  he  calls  the  metaphysical  defect  ia 
similarly  implied.  I  had  not  been  conscious,  until  thus  pointed  out  by  this 
French  critic,  that  the  rudiments  of  the  other  parts  of  this  theory  of  Evolu- 
tion were  lying  there  in  germ ;  and  the  fact  is  interesting  to  note.  " 

Certainly  it  seems  strange  I  should  have  needed  a  critic 


^T.58.]  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES.  311 

to  reveal  to  me  the  extent  to  which,  in  1857, 1  had  expressed 
ideas  which  I  thought  were  reached  in  subsequent  years. 

Of  occurrences  during  the  season,  only  one  calls  for  notice 
— a  visit  to  Paris,  extending  from  May  18  to  May  27,  in 
company  with  my  friend  Lott,  to  see  the  International 
Exhibition,  then  just  opened. 

Paris  was  unseen  by  him  save  through  such  glances  as 
he  got  during  a  few  hours  when  on  his  way  to  join  me  in 
Switzerland  in  1853;  and  it  was  pleasant  to  play  the 
guide  and  participate  in  his  interest.  Of  course,  joining 
the  chief  sights  with  the  contents  of  the  Exhibition,  and 
with  the  display  in  the  Salon,  which  opened  while  we 
were  there,  gave  us  so  much  to  look  at  that  our  time 
was  overfilled. 

I  see  by  my  diary  that  I  did  not,  during  our  stay,  desist 
entirely  from  such  work  as  might  be  done  in  the  shape  of 
revising.  Being  able  to  do  so  little  each  day,  I  was  always 
reluctant  to  sacrifice  wholly  the  working  power  which  each 
day  gave  me.  I  remember  correcting  some  MS.  when 
seated  in  the  garden  of  the  Trocadero,  while  Lott  pursued 
his  researches  in  the  annexed  Exhibition  Building. 

The  chief  incident  which  this  visit  brought  forth,  may 
be  conveniently  described  in  the  words  of  a  letter 
dated  May  30  :— 

•*  I  am  just  back  from  Paris,  not  the  better  but  rather  the  worse  for  my 
excursion.  Too  much  sight-seeing  and  too  many  excitements  of  one  kind  or 
other,  have  rather  knocked  me  over,  so  that  1  am  by  no  means  in  working 
order.  I  am,  however,  better  this  morning  and  hope  to  be  able  to  do  some- 
thing to-morrow.  I  send  you  by  this  same  post  a  French  paper,  Le  Temps, 
from  which  you  will  see  that  I  did  not  escape,  as  I  had  intended  to  do,  from 
seeing  some  of  my  Parisian  friends.  Anxious  to  avoid  all  social  excitements, 
I  postponed  calling  on  Bailli^re  until  I  had  been  in  Paris  for  a  week,  and 
only  two  days  before  starting  back:  thinking  that  I  should  so  render 
impossible  the  making  of  any  engagements.  However,  I  was  deluded. 
Within  twenty-four  hours  he  got  up  the  dinner  you  see  noticed,  and  I  had 
no  escape  from  it." 

Failure   of    the    reporter    to    understand    my    English 


312  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES.  [1878. 

Bpeech,  made  in  response  to  the  compliment  paid  me,  led 
three  French  papers  to  represent  me  as  having  proposed 
"  Fraternity "  as  a  toast !  The  statement  was  repeated 
in  the  English  papers;  and,  being  at  once  ludicrous  and 
annoying,  I  had  to  publish  a  letter  correcting  it. 

I  regretted  that  the  non-intimation  of  my  presence  in 
Paris  prevented  me  from  seeing  Dr.  Gazelles — my  first 
and  chief  French  translator — who  had  been  drawn  from 
his  home  in  the  South  by  the  International  Exhibition; 
and  to  whom  I  should  have  liked  to  express  personally 
my  thanks  for  his  conscientious  labours. 

The  successive  articles  agreed  on  as  above  described, 
had  been  coming  out  in  the  Fortnightly  Review  and  other 
periodicals  during  the  half-year:  the  first  having  appeared 
in  January,  and  the  last  in  July.  Not,  indeed,  that  the 
series  of  chapters  proposed  to  be  thus  issued  was  so 
concluded;  for  there  were  others  which  remained.  But 
no  more  had  a  periodical  publication. 

The  reason  for  the  cessation  was  that  the  articles  had 
not  proved  as  attractive  as  I  expected.  I  thought  that 
the  genesis  of  ceremonies  of  all  kinds  would  be  found 
not  uninteresting,  and  that,  as  the  illustrations  were  many 
of  them  curious,  and  many  of  them  piquant,  people  would 
be  led  to  give  attention.  To  judge  from  the  Press-notices, 
however,  this  was  not  so.  There  was,  indeed,  along  with 
the  facts  cited,  now  strange  and  now  amusing,  a  doctrine 
set  forth — a  theory  which  served  to  link  them  together. 
I  suppose  this  element  proved  repugnant.  It  seemed  as 
if  the  mass  of  readers  preferred  to  have  their  amuse- 
ment unadulterated  by  thought.  The  result  is  shown  in 
the  following  letter,  dated  May  15,  1878 ;  which,  after 
describing  this  lack  of  interest  displayed,  continues — 
"  Thinking  that  Morley  might  be  led  to  regret  that  he  had  undertaken  to 
publish  the  whole  series  of  chapters,  I  wrote  to  him  the  other  day  saying 
that  I  thought,  from  what  I  saw,  that  the  series  was  not  successful  in  respect 
of  popularity ;  and  that  I  did  not  wish  that  he  should  feel  himself  bound  to 


iET.  58.]  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES.  313 

fulfil  our  engagement  by  occupying  his  pages  with  matter  that  turned  out  not 
to  be  advantageous ;  and  that  consequently  we  would,  if  he  pleased,  publish 
no  more.  Though  himself  apparently  surprised  at  the  result,  he  recognizes 
the  fact  to  which  I  drew  his  attention ;  and,  thanking  me  for  making  the 
proposal,  which  he  says  he  hardly  likes  to  entertain,  yet  yields  to  it  if  I  wish : 
Bu^'gesting,  however,  the  desirability  of  publishing  the  next  instalment  in  his 
June  number — that  is,  the  chapter  on  '  Forms  of  Address ' ." 

Five   chapters   were    in    consequence   of   this   decision 

withheld:  some  of  them  already  written,  and  the  closing 

ones  unwritten.     The  entries  in  my  diary  appear  to  imply 

that  I  completed  them  before  doing  anything  else ;  or,  at 

any   rate,  before  devoting  myself  entirely  to  the  task  I 

proposed  next  to  undertake. 


CHAPTER  LV. 
THE  DATA  OF  ETHICS, 

1878—79.    ^t.  58—59. 

An  unusual  amount  of  ill-healtli  experienced  during  the 
winter  months  of  1877 — 78,  had,  even  before  the  illness 
described  in  the  last  chapter,  led  to  serious  thoughts 
respecting  my  future ;  and  these  had  prompted  a  pre- 
cautionary step.  On  the  9th  January,  while  lying  in  bed 
with  a  bad  cold,  I  sent  for  my  secretary,  and,  after 
disposing  of  a  small  matter,  began  dictating  memoranda 
for  the  Data  of  Ethics.  My  reasons  for  doing  this  are 
given  in  a  letter  dated  Feb.  16,  1878,  as  follows: — 
"  When  I  have  got  through  the  chapters  on  Ceremonial  Government,  and 
have  also  got  through  those  on  Ecclesiastical  Government,  which  I  propose 
to  deal  with  next  (not,  however,  publishing  them  in  the  same  way),  I  have 
some  idea  of  writing,  and  publishing  as  I  am  now  doing  in  the  Fortnightly, 
the  first  division  of  the  Principles  of  Morality  :  showing  how  morality  is  to 
be  dealt  with  from  the  Evolution  point  of  view,  as  the  outcome  of  all 
preceding  investigations.  I  begin  to  feel  that  it  is  quite  a  possible  thing 
that  I  may  never  get  through  both  the  other  volumes  of  the  Principles  of 
Sociology,  and  that,  if  I  go  on  vmting  them,  and  not  doing  anything  towards 
the  Principles  of  Morality  till  they  are  done,  it  may  result  in  this  last  subject 
remaining  untreated  altogether ;  and  since  the  whole  system  was  at  the  outset, 
and  has  ever  continued  to  be,  a  basis  for  a  right  rule  of  life,  individual  and 
social,  it  would  be  a  great  misfortune  if  this,  which  is  the  outcome  of  it  all, 
should  remain  undone.  So  that  I  think  of  putting  together  some  ten 
chapters  under  the  title  of  the  "  Data  of  Morality",  in  which  the  evolutionary 
conception  of  the  subject  will  be  so  far  clearly  set  forth,  that  the  develop- 
ment may  safely  be  left  to  others,  if  I  cannot  achieve  it  myself." 

Of  course  this  dictating  of  memoranda  for  The  Data  of 
Ethics  I  was  able  to  carry  on  only  at  intervals ;  for  as  I  had 
committed  myself  to  the  series  of  articles  described  in  the 


^T.  58.]  THE  DATA  OF  ETHICS.  315 

last  chapter,  my  time  was  chiefly  occupied  in  writing 
them.  But  the  ideas  to  be  set  forth  were  gradually  being 
arranged  and  developed,  as  is  implied  by  the  following 
extract  dated  March  13  : — 

"I  have  quite  decided  upon  the  course  I  named  with  regard  to  the  first 
division  of  the  Principle$  of  Morality,  and,  indeed,  am  getting  a  little  anxious 
to  undertake  it ;  for  now  that  I  have  for  some  time  been  thinking  it  over,  and 
putting  the  ideas  into  shape,  it  is  taking  so  satisfactory  a  form,  and  so  much 
more  complete  a  development  than  I  anticipated,  that  I  shall  be  glad  to  set 
it  forth :  even  apart  from  the  precaution  of  avoiding  any  possible  ultimate 
failure  in  publication  of  it.  It  will,  however,  as  I  think  I  indicated,  be  post- 
poned for  some  time  ;  inasmuch  as  I  have  committed  myself  to  writing  the 
Ecclesiastical  division  as  soon  as  I  have  done  the  Ceremonial.  But  when 
that  is  done  I  shall  take  up  the  Ethical  forthwith." 

Continued  during  the  remainder  of  the  spring,  this 
elaboration  of  ideas  had  the  result  that  when,  towards  the 
close  of  June,  the  chapters  on  Ceremonial  Institutions 
were  completed,  I  was  ready  to  begin  putting  into 
shape  this  new  division  of  my  undertaking  :  the  intention 
of  previously  executing  the  Ecclesiastical  division^  having 
been  abandoned. 

The  latter  part  of  June  1878  was  extremely  hot : 
making  one  long  for  a  shady  place  out  of  doors.  Ken- 
sington Gardens,  only  three  minutes  walk  off,  fulfilled  the 
desideratum ;  and  thither  I  betook  myself  with  my  short- 
hand secretary.  Hiring  two  chairs,  we  seated  ourselves 
under  the  trees,  and  I  dictated  for  half  an  hour.  Then 
we  walked  about  awhile;  after  doing  which  came  more 
dictating ;  and  so  on  alternately  throughout  the  morning. 
In  the  course  of  a  week  the  rough  drafts  of  sundry 
chapters  were  thus  prepared. 

I  say  "  rough  drafts  "  ;  for  I  had  been  led  into  a  mode 
of  composition  unlike  that  hitherto  pursued  by  me.  Usually 
my  first  MS.  was  also  the  last,  and  went  to  the  printers 
with  my  erasures  and  inter-lineations  upon  it.  But  having 
in  this  case  commenced  by  jotting  down  memoranda,  and 
having  from  time  to  time  during  the  spring  continued  this 


316  THE  DATA  OF  ETHICS.  [1878. 

process,  I  now  persisted  in  it  under  a  modified  form  :  the 
memoranda  taking  a  coherent  shape,  so  as  to  become  a 
full  presentation  of  the  argument.  Hence  resulted  the 
practice  of  devoting  a  "  copy-book  "  to  each  chapter,  and 
putting  it  aside  with  the  intention  of  using  it  as  a  basis  for 
the  final  dictation. 

I  name  this  fact  because  of  a  certain  accidental  sequence 
worth  mentioning.  One  of  the  "copy-books"  was  mislaid; 
and  when  I  came  to  the  chapter  sketched  out  in  it,  I  had  to 
re-dictate  this  without  reference  to  what  I  had  before 
said.  Some  time  after  the  book  was  published,  I  found 
this  missing  rough  draft.  A  perusal  showed  that,  besides 
a  different  presentation  of  the  argument,  it  contained  some 
illustrations  which  the  chapter  in  its  finished  form  did  not 
contain;  and  the  perusal  also  showed  that,  though  the  ideas 
had  been  given  forth  in  an  off-hand  way,  the  expression  of 
them  was  sufficiently  good  to  make  the  chapter  readable. 
When  preparing  the  second  edition,  I  therefore  decided  to 
append  this  rough-draft  chapter  just  as  it  stood :  merely 
punctuating  it,  and  substituting  the  right  words  in  some 
few  places  where  the  shorthand  writer  had  put  wrong  ones 
by  mistake.  It  serves  to  exemplify  my  mode  of  expression 
when  unstudied  and  unrevised. 

Of  late  years,  since  the  need  for  economy  of  time  and 
labour  has  become  so  manifest,  there  has  sometimes 
occurred  to  me  the  question — "Why  not  do  the  rest  of  my 
books  in  this  easy  and  rapid  way ;  so  as  to  get  the  ideas 
set  forth  in  some  shape,  if  not  in  the  best  shape  ?  More 
than  once  I  have  tried  to  dictate  permanent  work  after  the 
suggested  manner,  but  have  completely  failed.  The  rough 
drafts  above  described  were  dictated  in  the  belief  that 
they  were  rough  drafts — were  not  to  be  printed ;  and  the 
facility  resulted  from  this  belief.  As  soon  as  I  begin  to 
dictate  in  the  same  manner  with  the  consciousness  that 
what  I  am  doing  is  to  be  final,  I  am  hindered  by  self- 
criticism.  Flowingly  as  I  may  commence,  I  quickly  find  the 


^T.  58.]  TEE  DATA  OF  ETHICS.  317 

current  of  my  composition  checked  by  pausing  to  weigh 
this  sentence  or  that  expression,  until  presently  I  drop 
down  to  my  ordinary  rate.  It  is  a  provoking  difficulty, 
which  I  see  no  way  of  surmounting. 


Neither  anecdote,  nor  adventure,  nor  scientific  observa- 
tion, affords  a  reason  for  giving  much  space  to  details  of 
my  life  in  the  North  this  autumn. 

Leaving  town  on  the  25th  July,  I  passed  a  few  days 

at   Liverpool  with  the  Holts.     My   chief  recollection   of 

the  visit  is  that  I  spent  the  mornings  in  wandering  about 

Sefton  Park   (on  the  border  of  which  Mr.    Holt's   house 

stands),  carrying  Bain's  Mental  and  Moral  Science  under 

my  arm,  and  occasionally  sitting  down  to  read  portions  of 

it.     The  motive  for  this  is  implied  in  the  following  extract 

from  a  letter  written  on  July  5  : — 

*'  At  intervals  during  the  Spring,  and  more  especially  of  late,  I  have  been 
sketching  ont  in  the  rough  the  division  which  I  named  to  you — the  Data 
of  Ethics,  which  I  am,  as  I  said,  intending  to  write  and  publish  before  I 
go  further  with  the  Sociology.  This  rough  outline  is  now  mainly  done : 
being  complete  in  chapters  and  sections  of  chapters,  each  of  which  is 
sketched  out.  I  shall  finish  it  before  leaving  Town,  and  then,  taking  it  with 
me,  along  with  sundry  books  to  be  consulted,  I  shall  devote  myself  while 
away  to  the  re- elaboration  of  it  before  proceeding  finally  to  write  ". 

From  Liverpool  I  departed  for  Inveroran,  where  three 
weeks  were  spent  with  but  moderate  success  in  catching 
salmon,  and  considerable  success,  I  suppose,  in  reading 
and  revising,  if  I  may  judge  by  the  time  devoted  to  it; 
for  my  diary  shows  that  there  was  but  little  fishing 
weather.  Why  I  left  for  the  South  on  the  19th  I  do  not 
understand,  for  an  entry  on  the  17th  tells  me  that  I 
hooked  and  lost  four  salmon  in  succession ;  proving  that 
there  was  no  lack  of  fish  in  the  river.  Nor  do  I  under- 
stand what  prompted  me  to  make  a  detour  into  the  Island 
of  Arran  on  my  way  South.  Two  days  were  spent  at 
Brodick ;  and,  that  time  having  sufficed  me,  I  returned  to 
London,  which  I  reached  on  the  23rd  August.     Perhaps  a 


318  THE  DATA  OF  ETHICS.  [1878. 

desire  to  get  to  work  again  chiefly  moved  me  thus  to 
abridge  my  absence  to  less  tban  a  month. 

But  it  seems  I  was  not  satisfied  with  this  half -holiday. 
There  shortly  came  a  supplementary  one,  as  shown  by  the 
following  extract  dated  Sept.  27  : — 

*'  Yonr  letter  of  Sept.  3  reached  me  at  Lyme  Eegis,  where  I  have  been 
spending  the  last  ten  days  with  the  Busks,  I  had,  as  you  suppose,  returned 
to  Town,  and  indeed  had  been  three  weeks  here  before  going  away  again ; 
BO  that  I  was  able  to  take  away  a  sufficiency  of  MS.  to  occupy  me  in 
revision.    I  arrived  back  last  night  and  am  now  setting  to  work  again." 

One  of  the  incidents  of  my  stay  at  Lyme  Regis  was 
a  visit  to  the  remarkable  landslip,  about  six  miles  to  the 
west,  where  a  tract  some  quarter  of  a  mile  long  and  many 
acres  in  area,  bearing  a  house,  slid  bodily  forward  over 
the  shore  into  the  water ;  leaving  inland  a  vast  chasm  of 
perhaps  fifty  yards  wide  and  thirty  or  forty  feet  deep. 

As  my  beliefs  are  at  variance  with  those  expressed  in 
burial-services,  I  do  not  like  attending  funerals,  and  giving 
a  kind  of  tacit  adhesion  to  all  that  is  said.  But  I  am 
compelled  to  make  exceptions,  and  made  one  towards 
the  close  of  this  year ;  partly  because  my  absence  would 
have  been  generally  misinterpreted,  and  partly  because  it 
might  have  given  pain  to  one  whose  feelings  I  should  have 
been  very  reluctant  to  hurt,  though  probably  she  would 
have  understood  my  motive.  The  funeral  I  refer  to  was 
that  of  my  friend  Lewes,  which  occurred  on  the  4th 
of  December. 

His  death  ended  a  domestic  union  of  nearly  twenty-five 
years'  duration.  One  might  have  expected  that  the 
expressions  used  in  the  dedications  of  George  Eliot's  MSS. 
to  him,  would  have  sufficed  as  proofs  of  his  devotedness. 
But  there  are  not  a  few  who,  in  such  cases,  gladly  find 
occasion  for  unfavourable  comment,  or  assume  occasion  if 
they  cannot  find  it ;  and  most  people  have  no  scruples  in 
circulating  adverse  statements  without  asking  for  evidence. 
So  far  as  I  saw  (and  I  had  many  opportunities  of  seeing) 


Mt.  58.]  TRi:  DATA  OF  ETHICS.  319 

they  exceeded  any  married  pair  I  have  known  in  the 
constancy  of  their  companionship  ;  and  his  studious  care  of 
her  was  manifest.  I  remember  that  on  one  occasion  when, 
perhaps  during  a  temporary  mood,  I  had  been  saying  that 
though  possessed  of  so  many  advantages  I  valued  life  but 
little,  save  for  the  purpose  of  finishing  my  work,  they  both 
of  them  ascribed  my  state  of  feeling  to  lack  of  the 
domestic  affections,  and  simultaneously  exclaimed  that 
their  great  sorrow  was  that  the  time  would  soon  come 
when  death  would  part  them. 

In  the  brief  characterization  of  Lewes  which  I  gave  in 
an  early  chapter  of  this  volume,  I  omitted  two  allied  traits 
which  ought  to  be  mentioned.  One  of  them  was  that  he 
was  studiously  fair  in  his  criticisms,  alike  of  friends  and  of 
foes.  Bias  in  another's  favour  did  not  prevent  him  from 
indicating  such  faults  as  he  recognized ;  and  antagonism 
did  not  prevent  him  from  according  praise  for  merit, 
where  it  existed.  The  other  was  that  in  controversy  he 
was  exceptionally  open-minded.  Of  all  those  with  whom 
I  have  had  discussions,  I  cannot  remember  one  who,  when 
he  saw  that  a  position  was  untenable,  would  with  such 
entire  candour  avowedly  surrender  it.  Though  he  had 
plenty  of  amour  propre,  it  did  not  prevent  him  from 
yielding  to  a  conclusive  argument — did  not  induce  him 
to  go  on  fighting,  as  most  men  do,  after  they  are 
conscious  that  they  are  wrong. 

Later  in  December  came  the  preparations  for  a  change 
foreshadowed  in  the  last  chapter.  Already  to  a  letter 
I  have  quoted  concerning  my  health,  there  came  from 
Youmans  a  response  the  nature  of  which  is  implied  in  the 
rejoinder  I  made  on  March  13  : — 

' '  I  wish  I  could  follow  out  your  advice  with  regard  to  wintering  in  Algiers, 
but  I  do  not  find  it  practicable  to  get  a  friend  about  whom  I  care  anything 
to  join  me  ;  and  it  is  quite  out  of  the  question  to  go  alone.  That  you  should 
propose  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  the  kind  you  so  generously  indicate,  is  quite 
in  harmony  with  your  nature,  and  your  interest  in  the  end  to  be  achieved ; 


320  THE  DATA  OF  ETHICS.  [1879. 

but  you  must  not  suppose  that  there  are  many  others  who  have  like  feelings, 
and  would  be  ready  to  do  like  things.  However  I  shaU  make  an  effort  next 
year,  if  I  can  manage  to  conform  such  an  arrangement  with  the  progress  of 
my  work,  to  carry  out  this  scheme." 

On    July    5^    in    a    letter    partially    quoted    already, 

I  wrote  : — 

•'  I  have  pretty  well  decided  to  spend  my  next  winter  in  the  South  of 
Europe.  My  experiences  year  after  year,  and  especially  this  year,  have 
impressed  me  more  and  more  with  the  fact  that  our  winter  is  very  injurious 
to  me ;  and  is  injurious  because  my  powers  of  making  vital  heat,  naturally 
not  high,  have  fallen  so  much  below  par.  One  of  the  evidences  of  how  much 
I  fail  in  maintaining  my  vital  heat,  which  has  long  struck  me,  has  been 
that,  far  from  finding  a  hot  bath  enervating,  as  many  people  do,  it  always 
gives  me  a  better  appetite  :  showing  that  the  exaltation  of  the  functions  due 
to  a  gratis  supply  of  heat,  enables  me  to  carry  on  my  physiological  business 
better.  Quite  recently  I  have  had  still  clearer  evidence  of  this  ;  for  a  fit  of 
hot  weather  which  we  had  lately,  did  me  very  great  good — increased  my 
appetite  and  improved  my  digestion,  and  in  all  respects  made  me  better. 
So  that  I  see  that  my  health  and  power  of  working  for  the  future,  will 
depend  very  much  on  avoiding  the  evils  which  the  winter's  cold  entails 
upon  me." 

A  passage  from  a  letter  dated  Sept.  21 ,  shows  wliat  "was 
about  to  happen  : — 

"  I  was  delighted  to  find  that  my  suggested  intention  of  going  to  the 
South  of  Europe  to  spend  some  of  the  winter  months,  raised  in  you  the 
thought  of  accompanying  me;  and  I  strongly  urge  you  to  carry  out 
that  thought." 

Accordingly,  on  Dec.  17,  my  American  friend  arrived  in 
London.  Starting  on  the  20th  for  Paris;  spending  two 
days  there  to  arrange  for  the  translation  of  The  Data  of 
Ethics ;  and  halting  for  a  day  at  Lyons  to  rest ;  we 
reached  Hyeres  on  Christmas  eve. 


After  leaving  the  gloom  and  inclemency  of  a  London 
December,  it  was  delightful,  on  Christmas  morning,  to 
saunter  about  the  garden  of  the  Hotel  des  lies  d'Or,  and 
hear  the  buzzing  of  the  flies  in  the  sunshine — a  sound 
so  strongly  associated  with  the  glow  of  a  summer's  day. 
It  was  pleasant,  too,  to  pass  from  trees  black  and  bare,  to 
trees  and  plants  in  full  leaf,  native  and  introduced — the 


JEt.  59.]  TRU  DATA  OF  ETHICS.  321 

eucalyptus,  the  palms,  the  aloes,  which  are  becoming  so 
abundant  along  the  Eiviera  as  greatly  to  mask  the 
indigenous  vegetation. 

Speaking  of  aloes  reminds  me  that  I  observed  one 
which,  having  lately  sent  up  its  vast  flower-stalk,  had 
drooping  and  shrunken  leaves ;  and  this  suggested  a  good 
question  that  might  be  put  to  those  who  are  studying 
plant-life  after  a  rational  manner :  the  question,  namely— 
What  are  the  conditions  which  make  it  profitable  to  the 
aloe-species  to  postpone  flowering  so  long  ?  Young  people 
should  always  have  in  their  minds  problems  to  be  solved 
concerning  the  phenomena  of  the  surrounding  world,  and 
of  human  life.  A  boy  or  girl  rising  in  the  teens,  might 
with  advantage  be  asked — How  happens  it  that  in  hilly 
counties,  such  as  Devonshire,  the  lanes  are  deep  down 
below  the  surfaces  of  the  adjacent  fields ;  whereas  in  flat 
counties  the  surfaces  of  the  lanes  and  of  the  fields  are  on 
the  same  level  ?  What  is  the  definite  and  unmistakable 
distinction  between  running  and  walking  ?  Why  do 
horses  and  cows  drink  as  human  beings  do,  by  sucking  in 
the  water;  whereas  dogs  and  cats  drink  by  lapping? 
What  is  that  adjustment  of  the  parts  of  the  eye  which 
gives  the  infantine  stare,  as  contrasted  with  that  adjust- 
ment which  gives  the  calm  gaze  of  the  adult?  What 
advantage  does  a  plant  get  from  having  a  hollow  stem  or 
stem  filled  with  pith  ?  and  why  is  this  advantage,  which 
many  short-lived  plants  avail  themselves  of,  unavailable  by 
trees,  save  when  young  and  afterwards  in  their  shoots  ? 
Why,  in  a  river,  is  the  water  next  a  convex  shore  usually 
shallow,  and  the  bottom  often  sandy  ? 

A  teacher  who  understood  his  business  would  be  con- 
tinually devising  questions  of  these  and  countless  other 
kinds,  to  which  no  answers  could  be  found  in  books,  and 
would  persistently  refuse  to  give  the  answers  :  leaving  the 
questions  to  be  puzzled  over  for  years  if  need  were.  The 
mental  exercise  which  solving  one  such  question  implies, 

21 


322  THE  DATA  OF  ETHIGS.  [1879. 

is  of  more  value  than  that  implied  by  a  dozen  rote- 
learnt  lessons. 

Details  of  our  seven-weeks'  sojourn  on  the  Riviera  are 
not  called  for.  I  had  left  a  quantity  of  MS.  with  the 
printer,  and  had  taken  a  further  quantity  with  me  to 
revise.  My  mornings  up  to  the  time  of  the  dSfeuner  I 
devoted  to  correcting  MS.  and  proofs  ;  while  the  after- 
noons were  spent,  weather  permitting,  in  saunterings 
and  explorations. 

On  New  Year's  day  we  left  Hyeres  for  Cannes;  and,  after 
a  pleasant  week  there  we  passed  on  to  Nice,  or  rather  to 
Oimiez — a  little  place  on  the  high  ground  some  three  miles 
inland.  A  post-card  to  Lott  written  thence  on  Jan.  15, 
says  something  about  our  experiences : — 

"  This  is  the  region  of  extremes — winter  and  summer  mixed.  Now  sitting 
crouching  over  the  fire  with  great  coat  and  cap  on,  and  piling  rugs  on  the 
bed  at  night,  and  now  walking  in  bright  warm  sunshine,  seeing  butterflies 
about  and  peas  six  feet  high  in  blossom,  and  being  obliged  to  use 
mosquito  curtains  I 

' '  We  have  been  at  Hyeres  and  Cannes  for  a  week  each,  and  on  Friday 
shall  go  on  to  Mentone,  to  which  place  I  went  yesterday  " prospecting"  and 
was  delighted  with  it." 

On  the  17th  a  charming  drive  along  that  beautiful  part 
of  the  Corniche  road  lying  East  of  Nice,  took  us  to 
Mentone ;  and  there  we  settled  :  both  of  us  preferring  the 
place  to  any  of  the  others,  chiefly  because  of  its  surprizing 
number  of  picturesque  walks.  Of  course  we  made 
expeditions.  There  was  a  trip  to  Monaco  and  Monte 
Carlo  to  see  the  gambling-tables,  where  the  faces  of  the 
players  were  less  repulsive  than  I  had  expected.  A  day 
was  spent  at  Yentimiglia.  During  an  absence  of  two  days 
we  visited  Bordighera  and  San  Remo.  And  there  were 
smaller  excursions  to  places  near  at  hand — Roquebrune 
and  Eza. 

Concerning  this  last  place,  to  which  I  went  alone  (for 
Youmans  was  not  equal  to  much  exertion),  something  may 
be  said.     Already  from  the  Corniche  road  we  had  looked 


.Et.  59.]  THE  DATA  OF  ETHICS.  323 

down  upon  its  truncated  peak  of  rock,  and  cluster  of 
habitations  on  the  top ;  and  now  I  climbed  up  to  it  from 
the  railway-station  near  the  sea-side.  The  climb  occupied 
me  more  than  an  hour ;  for  I  sat  down  occasionally  to  rest 
and  do  a  little  revising.  But  the  sight  of  its  curious 
interior  well  repaid  me  for  the  climb.  With  its  irregular 
dwellings  huddled  together  chaotically  around  narrow 
streets  and  passages  and  archways  like  tunnels,  it  may  be 
compared  to  the  oldest  part  of  one  of  our  oldest  provincial 
towns,  in  course  of  being  changed  into  a  magnified  rabbit- 
warren.  At  the  highest  part  there  is  a  ruined  stronghold, 
in  which  I  sat  down.  After  contemplating  awhile  the 
magnificent  panoramic  view,  I  took  out  a  portion  of  The 
Data  of  Ethics,  and  spent  half  an  hour  upon  it;  and, 
remembering  what  the  place  had  witnessed  during  the 
times  when  it  was  a  refuge  for  the  people  of  the  district, 
and  during  other  times  when  it  was  held  by  the  invading 
Saracens,  I  was  struck  by  the  odd  contrast  between  the 
purposes  to  which  it  was  then  put,  and  the  purpose  to  which 
I  was  putting  it. 

By  the  middle  of  February  my  friend  and  I  found 
reasons  for  returning  :  I,  because  I  had  got  through  all  the 
MS.  I  had  brought  with  me,  and  he,  because  he  longed  for 
home.  We  reached  London  on  the  17th;  and,  after 
remaining  with  me  a  fortnight  he  departed  for  America. 
Writing  on  Feb.  19  to  Lott  I  said  : — 

"The  excursion  was  a  success  as  being  an  escape  from  the  terrible 
winter  you  have  had  here,  though  not  so  satisfactory  absolutely.  One-third 
rainy  days,  one-third  dull  days,  one-third  bright  days,  describes  the 
weather  approximately.  Still,  the  change  was  beneficial  in  some  respects 
and  enjoyable ;  and  as  I  did  my  full  stint  of  work  or  rather  more,  and  have 
come  back  perhaps  a  little  better  than  I  went,  I  am  content.  " 
This  description  of  the  unsatisfactory  weather  is,  I  find,  an 
over-statement.  My  diary  shows  that  the  fine  days  were 
slightly  in  excess  of  the  rest. 

Save  a  week's  visit  to  Quorn  at  Easter,  nothing  occurred 

21* 


324  THE  DATA  OF  ETHICS.  [1879. 

to  vary  the  even  tenour  of  my  life  until  the  beginning 
of  June;  on  the  7th  of  which  month  I  find  the  entry 
"  Finished  The  Data  of  Ethics  ".  The  printers  had  been  at 
my  heels  all  through  the  Spring;  so  that  now,  when  I  put 
the  final  portion  of  MS.  into  their  hands,  there  remained 
only  to  pass  the  last  sheets  through  the  press. 

This  small  task  was  not,  however,  completed  in  London, 
but  near  Salisbury ;  where  I  had  been  invited  to  spend  a 
few  days  at  Wilton  House,  with  the  kind  intention  of 
benefiting  my  health.  Had  I  thought  of  it,  I  might  have 
corrected  the  closing  pages  of  The  Data  of  Ethics  in  the 
groves  where  Sir  Philip  Sidney  is  said  to  have  composed 
his  Arcadia;  but  attractive  though  the  grounds  are,  it 
did  not  then  occur  to  me  to  take  my  work  out  of  doors. 
A  little  time  only  being  occupied  in  looking  through 
proofs,  the  rest  was  spent  partly  in  drives  and  walks 
accompanied  by  somewhat  too  much  conversation  for  my 
welfare,  and  partly  amidst  an  agreeable  circle  of  Whit- 
suntide guests.  I  have  often  regretted  that  the  health  of 
our  host  has  not  allowed  him  to  take  a  more  prominent 
part  in  public  life;  where  the  philanthropic  nature  he 
inherits,  joined  with  a  clear  intelligence,  might  have  done 
conspicuous  service. 

Shortly  after  my  return  to  town  The  Data  of  Ethics  was 
issued,  and  met  with  a  more  favourable  reception  than  I 
had  been  accustomed  to.  More  endeavour  was  made  than 
usual  to  give  some  idea  of  the  contents  of  the  work ;  and 
especially  in  one  instance,  a  clear  and  succinct  account  of 
its  argument  was  set  forth.  A  curious  commentary  on 
current  criticism  is  supplied  by  the  fact  that  I  was,  after 
nearly  thirty  years  experience  of  it,  surprized  to  meet 
with  a  case  in  which  the  reviewer  did  that  which  every 
reviewer  ought  to  do. 


CHAPTEK  LVL 

CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

1879.    ^t.59. 

As  the  articles  named  in  the  last  chapter  but  one  were 
all  nearly  completed,  though  not  all  published,  before  The 
Data  of  Ethics  was  seriously  commenced,  why  was  not  the 
volume  on  Oeremonial  Institutions,  constituted  by  these 
articles,  published  first  ?  Was  I  so  anxious  to  write  The 
Data  of  Ethics  that  I  could  not  even  delay  to  pass 
Ceremonial  Institutions  through  the  press  ?  These  questions 
at  first  puzzled  me;  and  it  was  only  after  some  consideration 
that  I  saw  what  had  happened. 

At  the  time  when  I  made  the  resolve  to  write  7 he  Data 
of  Ethics  forthwith,  lest  it  should  never  be  written  at 
all,  my  intention  was  to  publish  the  second  volume  of 
The  Principles  of  Sociology  as  a  whole,  according  to 
programme.  As  the  chapters  dealing  with  Ceremonial 
Institutions  formed  but  the  first  division  of  it,  they  were 
consequently  laid  aside  until  the  other  divisions  should 
be  written.  On  returning  to  the  subject,  however,  I 
reflected  that  as  the  volume  was  to  contain  five  divisions, 
treating  respectively  of  Ceremonial,  Political,  Ecclesiastical, 
Professional,  and  Industrial  Institutions,  it  would  be  very 
bulky,  and  would  be  a  long  time  in  hand — certainly  several 
years.  Hence  there  arose  the  thought — ^Why  not  publish 
each  division  separately  ?  Though  organically  connected 
with  the  rest,  each  division  has  a  sufiicient  degree  of 
independence  to  admit  of  separate  treatment;  each  division 


326  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1879, 

will  form  a  volume  of  sufficient  size;  and,  further,  each 
division  will  have  more  chance  of  being  bought  and  read 
than  did  it  form  a  part  of  one  large  expensive  volume. 
Moreover,  if  the  paging  was  made  to  run  consecutively 
through  these  successive  divisions,  they  could  be  bound 
into  one  volume  when  all  were  issued. 

Once  entertained,  the  thought  of  making  this  change 
of  plan  quickly  ended  in  action;  and,  soon  after  The  Data 
of  Ethics  was  through  the  press,  I  took  the  requisite  steps. 

The  season,  verging  towards  its  close  when  this 
happened,  brought  no  further  incident  worthy  of  mention. 
A  letter,  however,  dated  26  June,  names  a  fact  which,  I 
suppose,  ought  not  to  be  omitted  : — 

"  You  will,  I  daresay,  be  somewhat  surprised  so  soon  again  to  have  a  letter 
from  me ;  but  I  have  just  received  a  piece  of  news  of  a  satisfactory  kind 
which  you  will  be  glad  to  have.  .  .  .  It  is  contained  in  a  letter  just 
received  from  Bibot. 

"  'I  have  the  pleasure  of  informing  you  that,  by  official  resolution  of  the 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  your  principal  works  (First  Principles, 
Principles  of  Biology,  &c.)  are  henceforth  to  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of 
the  pupils  of  the  Lyceums,  and  may  be  given  to  them  as  prizes.  This 
resolution  is  the  result  of  efforts  to  this  end  which  I  have  long  made  in 
company  with  some  friends  (MM.  Marion,  Maspero,  &c.)  who  are,  like  me, 
members  of  the  Ministerial  Commission  which  selects  books.  There  were 
animated  discussions  over  each  of  your  works.  We  have  nevertheless  had  a 
majority  (the  Commission  is  composed  of  about  forty  members),  excepting 
the  work  on  Education,  which  has  been  excluded  "as  being  likely  to  make 
the  students  conceive  a  dislike  for  classical  studies  ".  At  the  same  time  it 
has  been  decided  that  this  book  may  be  given  to  students  who  are  about  to 
leave  the  Lyceum.    These  resolutions  apply  to  the  whole  of  France.'  " 

I  feel  that  the  quoting  of  this  passage  is  in  somewhat 
questionable  taste ;  and  yet  to  say  nothing  about  the 
endorsement  it  describes  would  be  to  leave  out  an 
occurrence  of  some  significance. 

A  biographer,  or  autobiographer,  is  obliged  to  omit  from 
hia  narrative  the  common-places  of  daily  life,  and  to  limit 
himself  almost  exclusively  to   salient  events,  actions,  and 


Mt.  59.]       CEitHMONIAL  INSTITUTiONS.  32f 

traita.  The  writing  and  the  reading  of  the  bulky  volumes 
otherwise  required,  would  be  alike  impossible.  But  by- 
leaving  out  the  humdrum  part  of  the  life,  forming  that 
immensely  larger  part  which  it  had  in  common  with  other 
lives,  and  by  setting  forth  only  the  striking  things,  he 
produces  the  impression  that  it  differed  from  other  lives 
more  than  it  really  did.     This  defect  is  inevitable. 

Consciousness  of  it,  and  the  desire  to  diminish  it,  have 
helped  to  make  me  persist  in  noting  my  various  absences 
from  town,  and  in  many  cases  giving  accounts  of  their 
doings;  since,  being  parts  of  the  life  which  might  as 
"well  have  belonged  to  other  lives,  they  tend  to  assimilate 
it  to  other  lives.  Not,  indeed,  that  I  have  done  this 
exhaustively.  Partly  by  intention,  and  partly  because 
there  was  no  diary  to  bring  them  before  me,  nor  references 
in  correspondence  to  remind  me  of  them,  I  have  left 
out  many  of  the  least  important  of  my  relaxations — 
short  sojourns  at  Brighton,  and  others  at  Eastbourne, 
Hastings,  Folkestone,  Tunbridge  "Wells,  Sevenoaks;  as  well 
as  various  short  visits  to  High  Elms,  Coombe  Bank, 
Wykehurst,  Aldermaston,  and  longer  ones  to  Standish 
and  Quom.  But  if  the  reader  will  conceive  that  the  breaks 
in  my  London  routine,  already  shown  to  be  frequent,  were 
still  more  frequent,  it  will  suffice. 

Instead  of  indicating  in  the  same  way  as  heretofore  my 

doings  in  the  autumn  of  this  year,  I  may  copy  verbatim 

my  diary  during  the  period,  or,  at  any  rate,  during  the 

greater  part  of  it :  so  giving  the  reader  a  clearer  idea  how 

my  holidays  were  spent  than  any  description  would  do. 

'^  July  30th.  Left  Euston  Station  by  the  8.50  limited  mail  for  Stirling. 
81st.  Stirling  at  7.50.  Inveroran  about  3.  Aug.  1st.  Began  fishing  at  11, 
ended  at  5.  Got  3  salmon — one  17  lb.,  one  of  15  lb.  and  one  10  lb. — all  in 
the  Island-pool.  2nd.  Eevising  Ceremonial  Government  in  morning. 
Afternoon  fishing  ;  river  gone  down  ;  no  sport.  3rd.  Eevising  Ceremonial 
Government  most  of  the  day — foot  bhstered  and  could  not  walk  much. 
4th.  Revising  Ceremonial  Government ;  short  walks.  5th.  Eevising  and 
short  walks.        6th.  Eevising  ;  some  rain  ;  river  higher  ;  fished  from    12 


328  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1879. 

to  6 — one  salmon  16  lb.  7th.  River  low— reading,  revising,  and  walking. 
8th.  Beading,  revising,  and  walking.  9th.  Beading,  revising,  and  walking. 
10th.  Reading,  revising,  and  walking.  11th.  Left  at  lOi ;  Tyndrom  at  12^ ; 
left  at  1 ;  got  to  Oban  at  6^ — Craigard  Hotel ;  met  Lingardi.  12th.  Left 
at  7  by  Skye-boat ;  Loch  Aline  at  8^ ;  and  Ardtomish  at  9^ ;  afternoon, 
netting  in  Looh  Arienas  and  picnic  with  the  ladies  there.  13th.  Revising, 
walking,  and  drive  to  old  Ardtomish  in  afternoon.  14th.  In  the  yacht 
Dobhran  up  Loch  Sunart  to  Strontian  ;  back  by  9  o'clock.  16th. 
Started  at  8  in  the  Dobhran  to  Staffa ;  fine  day ;  explored  cave ;  back  by  6^. 
16th.  Walking,  and  revising,  and  reading.  17th.  Walking,  revising,  and 
reading.  18th.  Started  in  Dobhran  np  Loch  Linnhe ;  saw  two  stags  stalked 
and  shot  by  Y.  Smith ;  on  to  Loch  Corrie  and  Looh  Leven ;  back  at  8. 
19th.  Fishing  on  Loch  Arienas  ;  14  sea-trout  and  12  loch-trout  in  5  hours. 
20th.  Revising,  reading,  and  walking.  21st.  Fishing  on  Loch  Arienas ;  no 
sport.  22nd.  Revising,  walking,  and  playing  lawn-tennis.  23rd.  Excur- 
sion in  the  Dobhran  to  Loch-na-Eiel,  in  Mull.  In  the  sound  saw  a 
whale  about  50  ft.  long  [which  accompanied  us  for  a  mile  or  more]. 
24th.  Revising,  billiards,  and  walking ;  went  to  Old  Ardtomish  in  afternoon. 
25th.  Fishing  from  11  to  5  in  river ;  6  sea  trout — one  5  lb.  one  2  lbs. ; 
missed  4  salmon.  26th.  Fishing  in  river  11  to  5 ;  got  2  salmon — one  7  lb., 
one  6  lb. ;  and  lost  a  third.  27th.  Revising  and  walking.  28th.  Fishing 
from  11  to  8  ;  3  sea-trout — one  of  2  lbs.  29th.  Revising  and  walking ; 
afternoon,  to  Acham  with  the  ladies.  30th.  Revising  and  walking. 
81st.  Revising  and  walking  to  Old  Ardtomish  in  afternoon.  Sept.  Ist. 
Revising,  very  wet ;  in  all  day.  2nd.  Ditto.  3rd.  Ditto ;  packing  up. 
4th.  Left  for  Oban  by  the  Plover  at  2 ;  Oban  at  4;  met  E.  Lott  and  Phy  at 
the  Craigard ;  evening  with  them.  6th.  At  8  left  by  Chevalier ;  reached 
Glasgow  7.40.  6th.  At  10.20  left  for  Edinburgh ;  there  at  11.50 ;  left  at 
2.80 ;  Galashiels  at  3.30  ;  Laidlawstiel  at  4.30. " 

Here  follows  a  week's  record ;  chiefly  of  walks  and  drives 
with  host  or  hostess.  Then  there  is  a  journey  to  Rusland 
near  Windermere,  to  join  the  Potters ;  where  another  week 
was  spent — now  in  some  unsuccessful  fishing  in  the  Leven, 
now  in  excursions  to  Barrow  and  Carpmel,  and  now  in 
climbing  hills  and  rambling  over  moors.  After  which,  on 
the  20th  September,  comes  the  journey  home. 

Perhaps  I  should  explain  that  there  had  been  no 
permanent  migration  from  Standish.  The  timber-importing 
firm,  of  which  my  friend  was  the  leading  partner,  in 
addition  to  their  place  of  business  at  Gloucester,  had 
established  branches  at  Great  Grimsby  and  Barrow;  and 


JEt.  59.]       CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS.  329 

finding  it  needful  to  be  near  Barrow  for  some  months  in 
the  autumn,  he  had  taken  Rusland  Hall  furnished. 

The  foregoing  extracts  from  my  diary  imply  that  a  good 
deal  had  been  done  during  my  vacation;  and  the  following 
passage  from  a  letter  dated  Laidlawstiel  shows  the  result : — 
"  I  have  been  revising  the  chaps,  on  Ceremonial  Imtitutiont,  and  shall  go 
to  press  as  soon  as  I  get  back.  Probably  I  shall  publish  by  the  end  of 
November. " 

Some  extracts  from  letters  written  shortly  after,  which 
have  interests  of  several  kinds,  may  be  added.  The  first  is 
dated  October  1. 

••  I  heard  yesterday  from  John  Evans  some  lines  [of  his  own]  which  have 
become  current,  summing  up  the  moral  of  Allman's  address  at  the 
/Association.    They  are  as  follows : — 

'  '  Twiit  life  and  consciousness  the  chasm, 
Cannot  be  bridged  by  protoplasm ; 
All  flesh  is  grass,  yet  chlorophyl 
Can  AH  man's  duties  not  fulfil. 
It  rarely  happens  that  a  pun  has  the  peculiarity  that  it  is 
not  only  true  either  way,  but  has  the  same  kind  of  truth 
both  ways.     The  next   extract  is  from   a   letter  written 
on  Oct.  8. 

"Mrs.  Lewes,  in  writing  to  me  about  the  Data  of  Ethics,  expressed  her 
anxiety  that  I  should  forthwith  finish  the  Ethics,  rather  than  return  to  the 
Sociology ;  but,  though  it  would  be  important  to  do  this,  I  feel  that  there  is 
Btill  greater  importance  in  forthwith  dealing  with  Social  Evolution  under  its 
political  aspect,  even  if  under  no  other." 

In  a  letter  two  days  later  in  date  there  is  a  passage 

of  which  the  significance  will  appear  hereafter. 

"  While  away  in  the  country  this  time,  I  have  been  so  frequently  thinking 
of  the  question  of  MiUtancy  v.  Industrialism,  and  the  profound  antagonism 
between  the  two  which  comes  out  more  and  more  at  every  step  in  my 
Sociological  inquiries,  and  I  have  been  so  strongly  impressed  with  the 
re-barbarization  that  is  going  on  in  consequence  of  the  return  to  militant 
activities,  that  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  worth  while  to  try 
and  do  something  towards  organizing  an  antagonistic  agitation.  We  have, 
lying  diffused  throughout  English  society,  various  bodies  and  classes  very 
decidedly  opposed  to  it,  which  I  think  merely  want  bringing  together  to 
produce  a  powerful  agency,  which  may  do  eventually  a  good  deal  in  a 
civilizing  direction.      The  Nonconformist  body  as  a  whole,  through  its 


330  CEBEMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1879. 

mmisters,  has  been  manifesting  anti-war  feelings  very  strongly ;  the  leading 
working-men,  as  was  shown  at  the  late  Sheffield  Congress,  are  quite  alive  to 
the  mischief ;  the  Secnlarists  as  a  body  will  go  in  the  same  direction ;  so 
will  the  Comtists ;  so  wUl  a  considerable  number  of  rationalists  ;  so  will  a 
considerable  sprinkling  of  Liberal  politicians;  and  so  will  even  a  certain 
proportion  of  the  advanced  Churchmen,  such  as  Hughes,  and  of  the  clerical 
body.  I  have  talked  to  several  about  the  matter — Rathbone,  member  for 
Liverpool,  Harrison,  Morley  and  others — and  I  am  about  to  take  further 
Bteps.  There  is  a  decided  sympathy  felt  by  all  I  have  named ;  and  I  think 
that  it  is  important  to  move. " 

Probably,  if  I  had  duly  borne  in  mind  the  general 
principle  of  the  specialization  of  functions,  I  should  have 
seen  that  my  function  was  to  think  rather  than  to  act,  and 
should  have  never  entertained  the  intention  here  indicated. 

During  the  short  period  covered  by  the  title  of  this 
chapter,  nothing  further  occurred  calling  for  mention. 

In  respect  of  punctuality,  printers  are  not  more  praise- 
worthy than  other  men  of  business.  Delay  in  the  receipt 
of  proofs  is  a  standing  grievance  with  authors,  as  delay  in 
the  receipt  of  coats  and  boots  is  a  standing  grievance  with 
men  at  large.  In  this  case,  however,  the  printers  proved 
unusually  virtuous ;  and  my  anticipation  above  expressed, 
that  Geremonial  Institutions  would  be  ready  for  publication 
by  the  end  of  November,  was  more  than  fulfilled ;  for  the 
book  was  nearly  through  the  press  before  many  days  in 
November  had  passed. 

But  now,  while  the  last  sheets  were  passing  under  my 
eyes,  came  an  event  which  changed  the  course  of  my  life 
for  the  next  three  months.  So  marked  a  break  may  fitly 
be  signalized  by  the  commencement  of  a  new  division. 


PART    XII. 


CHAPTER  LVII. 

UP  THE  NILE. 

1879—80.    ^t.  59. 

One  morning  at  tlie  close  of  October,  I  received  from  a 
young  lady  a  note  saying — "  Will  you  not  come  and  bid 
me  good-bye  before  I  start  for  Egypt  ?"  Of  course  I  went 
forthwith. 

Already  I  had  been  telling  my  friends  that  if  I  could  get 
fit  companionship  I  would  again  spend  the  winter  in  the 
South.  Egypt  was  a  country  to  be  visited  ;  and  as  I  was 
now  fifty-nine,  there  was  not  much  time  to  be  lost  if  I 
meant  ever  to  see  it.  What  if,  instead  of  saying  good-bye, 
I  should  become  one  of  the  party  ! 

The  party  I  found  consisted  of  a  clergyman,  his  wife, 
and  the  young  lady  in  question ;  and  it  had  been  arranged 
that  each  of  the  ladies  should  choose  a  gentleman  who, 
added  to  the  rest,  would  make  up  a  number  suflScient  to 
occupy  a  dahaheyah  and  share  the  cost :  the  intention  being 
that  the  selections  should  be  made  from  those  in  the 
hotel  at  Cairo.  How  the  matter  came  about  I  do  not 
remember;  but  it  was  soon  perceived  that  I  entertained  the 
thought  of  joining;  whereupon  I  was  pressed  to  do  so. 
As  the  pressure  was  added  to  by  the  father  of  the  young 
lady,  who  happened  to  be  present,  I  felt  inclined  to  yield. 
Not  then  deciding,  however,  I  took  time  to  consider 
whether  such  a  journey  might  be  undertaken  without  too 
great  a  hindrance  to  my  work,  and  next  day  assented  to 
the  proposal.  An  immediate  departure  in  company  with 
the  three  was  obviously  impracticable  ;  for  I  had  more  than 
a  week's  revision  to  do  on  the  last  sheets  of  Oeremonial 


334  UP  THE  NILE.  [1879. 

Institutions.  But  as  they  were  going  all  the  way  by  sea, 
and  as  I  proposed  to  go  by  land  as  far  as  Brindisi,  it  was 
clear  that  I  should  be  able  to  reach  Cairo  as  soon  as  they 
did,  though  I  started  a  week  later.  With  this  under- 
standing we  exchanged  our  temporary  farewells. 

During  the  time  the  negociation  was  pending,  I  said  it 
was  a  pity  that  the  party  did  not  include  one  of  the  young 
ladjr^s  sisters.  This  remark  was  repeated  in  a  letter  to  the 
mother;  and,  a  day  or  two  later,  there  came  from  her  the 

question — "  Will  you  take  charge  of  H ?"     Naturally 

nothing  could  please  me  better  than  to  have  such  a  travelling 
companion;  and,  telegraphing  at  once  an  afl&rmative  answer, 
I  rushed  off  to  Leadenhall  Street  to  engage  a  berth  for  her. 
A  bustling  interval  after  the  young  lady's  arrival  in  town, 
was  followed  by  our  departure  on  the  11th  November. 

Details  of  the  journey  need  not  be  given.  Suffice  it 
to  say  that,  while  crossing  the  Channel,  we  made  the 
acquaintance  of  a  gentleman  and  his  wife  who  were  also 
bound  for  Cairo ;  and  I  was  enabled  to  put  my  charge 
under  the  lady's  wing  :  so  absolving  myself  from  much  of 
my  responsibility;  which  was  a  great  satisfaction.  Our 
stopping  places  were  Paris,  Turin,  Bologna  (where  we 
had  nearly  two  days  to  spare)  and  Brindisi;  leaving 
which  last  place  by  the  P.  &  0.  steamer,  we  reached 
Alexandria  on  the  20th  and  Cairo  the  same  evening. 

A  good  deal  of  merriment  was  caused  by  an  occurrence 
which  arose  from  the  division  of  our  party.  The  arrange- 
ments in  pursuance  of  which  I  brought  with  me  an 
additional  member  of  it,  were  made  after  the  departure 
of  the  original  group.  They  went  by  a  private  steamer 
bound  from  Liverpool  to  Port  Said;  and  they  were,  of 
course,  in  ignorance  of  what  had  happened.  A  passage 
written  from  Cairo  on  Nov.  23,  thus  narrates  the 
consequences : — 

"  H and  I,  after  a  prosperous  journey,  arrived  here  nearly  three  dayg 

ago.    We  got  here  two  days  before  her  sister,  whom  we  were  to  join,  and 


^T.  59.]  UP  THE  NILE.  335 

who  had  no  notion  that  she  was  coming !  Last  night,  on  her  sister's  arrival, 

we  had  an  immense  joke.    H was  dressed  up  as  a  Turkish  lady,  with 

black  veil  just  showing  her  eyes.    I  took  E to  show  her  her  room ;  and, 

on  entering  the  ante-chamber,  explained  to  her  that  for  a  night  or  so,  it  would 
be  needful  to  share  the  double  room  with  this  Turkish  lady,  whom,  as  I 
assured  her,  she  would  find  a  nice  creature,  and  to  whom  I  then  proceeded 

to  introduce  her.    H drawled  out  some  broken  French ;  and  it  was  great 

fun  to  watch,  first  E 's  horror  and  disgust  at  the  prospect  before  her, 

and  then  her  astonishment  as  the  truth  was  disclosed. 

"The  sunny  weather  is  charming,  but  thus  far  I  find  my  sleep  much  worse 
instead  of  better.    I  hope  it  may  be  otherwise  after  a  while. 

"The  population  here  shocks  me  greatly.  Very  picturesque,  but  poor 
ragged,  dirty,  diseased.  I  am  eager  to  get  away  on  to  the  Nile ;  hoping  to 
see  a  less  concentrated  form  of  the  misery  of  a  long-decaying  civilization." 

That  this  experience  was  unique  is  not  likely;  but  there 
cannot  have  been  many  who  have  had  the  opportunity  of 
introducing  one  sister  to  another  in  disguise,  two  thousand 
miles  away  from  home. 

A  fortnight  in  Cairo,  partly  spent  in  making  arrange- 
ments for  our  inland  voyage,  and  otherwise  in  sight-seeing, 
now  followed.  To  myself  it  brought  not  much  satisfaction. 
An  imprudent  meal  at  Alexandria  established  a  long  fit  of 
indigestion,  producing,  as  my  diary  tells  me,  a  succession 
of  wretched  nights. 

One  result  was  that  when,  after  a  few  days,  we  made  an 
expedition  to  the  Pyramids,  I  felt  too  much  enfeebled  to 
attempt  the  ascent,  and  had  to  content  myself  with  rambling 
about  their  bases  and  inspecting  the  adjacent  remains. 
The  entry  in  my  diary  describes  me  as  ''  much  impressed." 
Perhaps  even  more  than  the  Great  Pyramid,  the  thing 
which  impressed  me  was  the  tomb-temple  in  which  we 
picnic'd.  It  is  built  of  large  polished  granite  blocks, 
BO  accurately  fitted  as  not  to  have  needed  any  mortar. 
Egyptologists  say  it  is  of  greater  antiquity  than  the 
pyramids  themselves !  More  than  anything  else  I  saw,  this 
ancient  structure  made  me  feel  the  mystery  which  enshrouds 
the  earliest  Egyptian  civilization  known  to  us. 

It  is  needless  to  describe  our  visits  to  the  mosques  of 


336  UP  THE  NILE.  [1879. 

Sultan  Hassan  and  Mohammed  Ali,  the  Tomb  of  the  Kings 
and  the  Cemetery,  the  mosque  of  Talou,  the  Arab  Uni- 
versity, the  howling  dervishes  and  dancing  dervishes,  and 
a  moonlight  ride  to  the  Tombs  of  the  Caliphs.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  more  or  less  daily  sight-seeing  relieved  the  long- 
drawn  negotiation  with  a  dragoman  and  the  choice  of  a 
dahabeyahj  for  in  the  East,  business-transactions,  accom- 
panied by  much  giving  and  receiving  of  presents,  are 
exasperatingly  slow. 

During  this  interval  the  ladies  of  the  party  were  taken 
to  be  presented  to  the  Sultana  (if  that  is  the  title  of  the 
Khedive's  wife) ;  and  it  was  proposed  to  me  to  make 
a  like  visit  to  the  Khedive.  I  do  not  remember  by 
whom  the  proposal  was  made;  but  I  greatly  astonished 
the  gentleman  by  declining,  and  by  giving  as  my  reason 
that  I  did  not  care  for  introductions  which  led  to 
nothing.  I  have  a  great  aversion  to  mere  ceremonial 
interviews. 

By  the  end  of  a  fortnight  matters  had  been  settled,  and 
there  remained  only  to  stock  the  dahabeyah  with  the 
needful  supplies.  My  friends  amused  themselves  by 
rambling  through  the  bazaars  buying  oriental  knick- 
knacks  ;  but  as  I  had  no  taste  for  them  (I  brought  back 
nothing  but  photographs)  this  distraction  was  not  available. 
Hence  I  was  a  good  deal  bored.  One  of  the  things  I  did 
to  pass  the  time  was  to  make  an  excursion  to  a  suburban 
watering  place. 

This  place  was  Helouan,  some  dozen  miles  from  Cairo,  on 
the  border  of  the  Eastern  Desert,  where  the  existence  of 
sulphuretted  springs  had  led  the  late  Khedive  to  attempt 
the  establishment  of  a  resort  for  visitors ;  not,  however, 
with  much  success,  for  the  place  lacked  attractions. 

Clearer  ideas  of  a  desert  were  obtained  than  I  before 
had ;  but  that  which  I  chiefly  remember  is  that  for  the 
first  time   I   perceived   the   nature   of   an   "  after-glow." 


^T.  59.]  UP  THE  NILE.  337 

Egypt  ia  a  land  in  which  fine  sunsets  are  habitual — ^not 
sunsets  of  that  gorgeous  kind  in  which  clusters  of  clouds 
are  splendidly  lighted  up^  for  there  are  not  commonly  the 
clouds  required ;  but  sunsets  fine  in  the  sense  of  presenting 
a  brightly  illuminated  Western  sky.  From  the  clearness 
and  dryness  of  the  air,  it  further  results  that  habitually  (as 
occasionally  in  our  own  climate  in  frosty  weather),  just 
as  sunset  is  taking  place,  the  Eastern  portion  of  the 
heavens  to  some  height  above  the  horizon,  becomes  red. 
Evidently  its  redness  is  due  to  the  fact  that  along  with 
those  rays  which,  reaching  the  observer,  yield  to  his  eyes 
the  bright  red  of  the  western  sky,  there  go  the  rays  which 
pass  by  him  and  fall  on  the  haze  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
Eastern  sky.  Now  this  illuminated  haze,  visible  to  him  by 
reflected  light,  must  be  visible  by  transmitted  light  to 
people  living  several  hundred  miles  below  the  Eastern 
horizon;  and  to  them  it  constitutes  an  '^after-glow." 
Verification  is  obtained  by  watching  what  takes  place.  As 
the  sun  goes  below  the  Western  horizon,  there  may  be 
observed  on  the  Eastern  horizon  (which  the  flatness  of  the 
desert  makes  visible  in  Egypt)  a  grey  band,  due  to  that 
portion  of  the  Eastern  haze  which  does  not  catch  the  red 
rays  from  the  West.  As  the  sun  descends  further  below 
the  Western  horizon,  this  grey  band  broadens ;  and,  at  the 
same  time,  the  red  haze  above  it  ascends  and  broadens. 
This  process  continues  until  eventually  the  red  haze, 
becoming  fainter  as  it  broadens  and  rises  higher,  is  lost  in 
mid-heaven;  where,  of  course,  the  thickness  of  illuminated 
haze,  as  seen  from  below,  is  insufficient  to  cause  appreciable 
colour.  Presently,  on  the  other  side  of  the  heavens,  this 
process  is  reversed.  The  diffused  and  faint  red  light 
extending  high  up,  gradually  descends,  narrows,  becomes 
brighter,  and  ends  in  an  "after-glow". 

On  the  morning  of  Dec.  12  our  dragoman  signalized  the 
departure  of  our  dahabeyah  by  discharging  his  pistol — the 

■22 


338  UP  THE  NILE.  [1879. 

sole  weapon  of  defence  we  had  on  board  j  and  we  sailed 
away  witli  a  fair  North  wind. 

It  seems  at  first  surprising  that  the  North  wind  should 
blow  daily,  if  not  with  complete  regularity,  yet  with  some- 
thing approaching  it.  I  suppose  the  cause  is  that,  to 
supply  the  place  of  the  immense  volume  of  heated  air 
which  ascends  from  the  surfaces  of  the  surrounding  deserts 
when  the  sun  begins  to  heat  them,  a  current  of  air  sets  in 
below ;  and  the  coldest  air,  which  is  that  from  the  North,  is 
that  which  takes  the  place  of  the  heated  air.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  however,  the  cold  North  wind  greatly  qualifies  one's 
sensation  of  warmth  from  the  sun's  rays,  and  at  the  same 
time  greatly  qualifies  the  pre-conception  one  has  of  the 
climate.  How  cold  it  frequently  is  may  be  judged  from 
the  fact  that  the  fellahs  who,  on  the  banks  of  the  river, 
work  all  day  with  their  shadoofs,  raising  water  to  irrigate 
their  lands,  habitually  construct  screens  to  shelter  them- 
selves from  the  blast.  And,  in  further  proof  of  the 
coldness,  I  may  add  that  more  than  ten  days'  journey 
South  of  Cairo,  we  twice  had  ice  formed  at  night  on  the 
deck  of  our  dahabeyah. 

Here  let  me  correct  another  erroneous  impression 
respecting  the  meteorology  of  Egypt,  entertained,  I 
suppose,  by  others  in  common  with  myself.  I  had  always 
been  led  to  believe  that  "  it  never  rains  in  Egypt."  I  was 
completely  undeceived  when  at  Helouan;  where,  in  the 
adjacent  desert,  besides  marks  of  recent  storms,  I  saw  a 
channel  which  had  been  cut  through  the  rock,  some  dozen 
or  more  feet  wide,  and  nearly  as  deep,  by  the  tremendous 
torrents  which  occasionally  rushed  down  it. 

While  I  am  speaking  of  natural  objects  which  interested 
me,  let  me  name  a  flock  of  pelicans  seated  upon  an 
adjacent  sand-bank  as  we  sailed  by.  After  the  melancholy- 
looking  specimens  in  the  Zoological  Gardens,  it  was  pleasant 
to  see  these  birds  in  one  of  their  natural  habitats.  I  was 
puzzled  to  understand  how,  in  the  turbid  waters  of  the  Nile, 


^T.  59.]  UP  THE  NILE.  339 

they  are  able  to  secure  a  sufficiency  of  prey.  Obscured  by 
the  suspended  mud  and  sand,  fish  can  be  visible  at  but 
very  short  distances  ;  and  one  would  have  thought  that 
creatures  requiring  food  in  such  considerable  quantities, 
could  not  have  obtained,  by  diving,  a  sufficiency. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  that  the  fish  are  limited  almost  entirely 
to  the  bottom,  of  which  there  is  curious  evidence.  As  far 
as  I  remember,  all  the  fish  I  saw,  differing  though  they 
might  in  species,  were  alike  in  being  provided  with  long 
pendant  tentacles;  showing  how  large  a  part  exploration 
by  touch  played  in  their  lives.  So  thick  is  the  Nile  water 
that  at  any  considerable  depth  in  it  the  light  must  be  very 
dim ;  and,  as  the  distance  seen  through  an  obstructing 
medium  with  little  light  can  be  but  small,  the  obtainment 
of  food  in  mid-water  must  be  impracticable.  Feeling 
about  at  the  bottom  seems  the  only  alternative ;  and  hence 
the  great  development  of  tactile  organs. 

But  what  of  our  life  and  adventures  on  the  Nile  ?  Well, 
it  seems  hardly  worth  while  to  say  anything  concerning 
them.  As  to  the  life,  considered  apart  from  occasional 
excursions  to  tombs  and  temples,  it  was  monotonous 
enough.  And  as  for  the  things  seen,  are  they  not  described 
by  many  travellers,  and  delineated  in  the  works  of 
Egyptologists  ?  Now-a-days,  to  say  anything  new  about 
them  would  be  difficult. 

There  is,  however,  a  further  reason  why  I  do  not  give 
details  of  our  journey.  The  dyspepsia  set  up  at  Alexandria, 
with  its  consequent  bad  nights,  had  produced  a  state  of 
depression  which  prevented  me  from  entering  with  due  zest 
into  sight-seeing;  and  anything  I  might  say  about  what  we 
did  and  saw  would  lack  that  character  which  only  deep 
interest  can  give.  Hitherto  my  nervous  relapses  had  not 
caused  any  conspicuous  changes  in  my  flow  of  spirits, 
which,  throughout  life,  had  been  equable — never  very  high, 
never  very  low.     But  now  I  had  experience  of  a  state,  not 

22* 


340  UP  THE  NILE.  [1880. 

uncommon  witli  nervous  subjects,  in  wMch  fancies,  after- 
wards seen  to  be  morbid,  took  possession  of  me ;  leading  to 
ill-balanced  estimates  and  consequent  unwise  judgments. 
Already  I  had  once  decided  to  return,  and  bad  changed  my 
mind ;  and  at  the  first  cataract  I  finally  decided  to  return. 
As  is  usual,  our  expedition  was  to  extend  to  the  second 
cataract;  but  at  Philae,  leaving  my  friends  to  carry  out  the 
original  plan,  I  bade  them  good-bye.  This  decision  of 
course  added  considerably  to  my  expenses ;  for,  beyond  my 
share  of  the  costs  up  to  the  second  cataract  and  back, 
which  of  course  I  paid  though  I  did  not  go,  I  had  to 
pay  the  cost  of  the  return-journey  to  Cairo. 

This  return-journey  was  rendered  less  monotonous  than 
it  would  else  have  been  by  a  fortunate  incident.  Such 
excursion  traffic  on  the  Nile  as  is  not  carried  on  in 
dahabeyahs,  is  divided  between  two  steamers;  one  of 
which  plies  below  the  first  cataract  and  the  other  above  it: 
passengers  being  transferred  through  some  five  miles  of 
desert  from  the  one  to  the  other.  When  my  friends  sailed 
away  from  Philae,  this  upper  steamer  had  just  returned 
from  the  second  cataract;  and,  joining  those  on  board,  I 
had,  in  common  with  them,  to  wait  three  days  until  the 
steamer  at  Assouan  was  ready  for  us.  Among  those  thus 
detained  was  Prof.  Sayce ;  and  during  these  three  days  we 
had  some  interesting  conversations.  One  of  them  concerned 
a  general  assumption  of  the  philologists  to  which  I  demur ; 
and  I  remember  it  in  some  measure  because  it  took  place  as 
we  paced  backwards  and  forwards  on  the  southern  side  of 
a  grove  of  palms,  to  shelter  ourselves  from  the  North  wind; 
though  the  place  is  nearly  five  hundred  miles  south  of  Cairo. 

On  our  way  down  the  river  Prof.  Sayce's  information 
made  more  instructive  than  they  would  otherwise  have  been 
some  things  we  saw  together,  and  particularly  the  temple 
of  Abydos. 

How  much  was  due  to  the  aspect   of  things,  and  how 


Mt.59.]  up  the  NILE.  341 

much  to  my  mood,  I  cannot  say,  but  Egypt  impressed  me 
as  a  melancholy  country.  In  the  title  of  a  work  by  Mr. 
Stuart  Glennie,  it  is  called  "  the  Morning-Land " :  the 
intention  obviously  being  to  suggest  that  it  was  the  land  in 
which  civilization  dawned.  But  to  me,  not  looking  forward 
upon  it  but  looking  back,  it  seemed  rather  the  land  of 
decay  and  death — dead  men,  dead  races,  dead  creeds. 

Everywhere  are  ancient  burial  places  to  be  visited — vast 
cemeteries  like  that  of  Sakkara,  extensive  sepulchral 
chambers  such  as  those  of  the  kings  at  Thebes,  and  rock- 
cut  tombs  seen  in  the  faces  of  the  cliffs  as  we  sail  by. 
Eelics  taken  from  graves  are  soon  made  familiar;  and 
from  time  to  time  one  sees  fragments  of  mummy-cloth 
blown  about  by  the  winds.  Here  and  there  are  shapeless 
mounds  of  debris,  chaotically  grouped,  where  once  towns 
and  cities  stood.  At  some  places  haK  imbedded  in  these, 
and  elsewhere  otherwise  imbedded,  are  the  remains  more  or 
less  ruined  of  the  ancient  temples,  in  which,  as  in  the 
tombs,  was  carried  on  a  cult  that  grievously  subordinated 
the  living  to  the  dead ;  while,  along  with  represented  acts 
of  sacrifice,  their  walls  are  filled  with  scenes  of  merciless 
slaughter  of  one  people  by  another.  And  then,  from  the 
lifeless  deserts  on  either  hand,  the  winds  have  ever  been 
bringing  sands  to  bury  the  remains  of  men  and  their  works, 
and  to  re-bury  them  when  exhumed. 

Nor  does  modern  Egjrpt  fail  to  remind  one  of  death  and 
decay.  Yast  heaps  which  cover  up  once  populous  towns, 
probably  of  comparatively  recent  date,  draw  one's  attention 
close  to  Cairo.  Tombs,  as  of  the  Caliphs  and  others,  are 
here,  again,  among  the  things  to  be  visited.  Moreover  there 
are  the  burial  grounds  now  in  use — unf  enced  places  run  over 
by  children  and  dogs,  covered  by  broken  stones  and  monu- 
ments, with  holes  which  seem  to  run  into  the  graves  :  places 
so  repulsive  that  anyone  otherwise  indifferent  to  death 
might  shudder  at  the  thought  of  being  interred  there. 

And   then   there   comes   the   thought  of   the  miserable 


342  UP  THE  NILE.  [1880. 

peoples  who  have  lived  and  died  in  the  Nile  valley ;  from 
the  earliest  times^  when  the  masses  were  slaves  to  the 
military  and  priestly  castes,  down  to  our  own  times,  when 
unhappy  fellahs  are  beaten  by  extortionate  tax-gatherers 
to  get  money  for  supporting  corrupt  governments.  The 
suffering  which  has  been  borne  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile 
by  millions  of  men  during  thousands  of  years  is  appalling 
to  think  of. 

Connected  with  these  impressions,  is  the  remembrance  of 
a  marvellous  contrast  between  two  memorials  to  the  dead, 
presented  at  Ghizeh  and  at  Elephantine  respectively. 

With  the  one  memorial  is  associated  the  name  of  Cheops, 
or,  as  he  is  now  called,  Chufu  or  Koofoo — a  king  who,  if 
we  may  believe  Herodotus,  kept  a  hundred  thousand  men 
at  work  for  twenty  years  building  his  tomb;  and  who, 
whether  these  figures  are  or  are  not  correct,  must  have 
imposed  forced  labour  on  enormous  numbers  of  men  for 
periods  during  which  tens  of  thousands  had  to  bear 
great  pains,  and  thousands  upon  thousands  died  of  their 
sufferings.  If  the  amounts  of  misery  and  mortality 
inflicted  are  used  as  measures,  this  king,  held  in  such 
detestation  by  later  generations  that  statues  of  him  were 
defaced  by  them,  ought  to  be  numbered  among  the  few 
most  accursed  of  men. 

The  other  memorial  I  observed  on  the  occasion  of  an 
excursion  we  made  to  the  island  of  Elephantine  at  Assouan. 
We  saw  a  burial  place  there;  and  noted  a  grave-heap 
recently  made.  Perhaps  it  covered  the  body  of  one  who 
died  prematurely  of  toil  made  greater  by  State-extortions  ; 
perhaps  of  a  son  who  had  laboured  in  support  of  aged 
parents ;  perhaps  of  a  widow  who  had  borne  the  burden  of 
rearing  fatherless  children.  But  the  fact  which  impressed 
me  was  that  at  the  head  of  this  grave-heap  the  sole  mark 
of  remembrance  was  a  sun-dried  brick  stuck  on  end. 

The   contrast  between   these   monuments   was  striking 


Mt.59.]  up  the  NILE.  343 

when  one  thouglit  of  it.  To  a  man  of  immeasurable  guilt 
the  biggest  building  which  the  world  contains ;  to  a  man 
probably  inoffensive  and  possibly  meritorious  a  lump  of 
parched  clay ! 

After  a  day  spent  at  Cairo  in  recruiting  (for^  as  may  be 
imagined^  five  nights  on  board  a  cramped  Nile-steamer  left 
me  in  a  state  of  exhaustion),  and  after  going  to  see  the 
resident  English  physician  there.  Dr.  Grant,  I  departed  for 
Alexandria.  Next  morning  was  spent  in  an  excursion  to 
Ramleh,  a  residential  suburb,  to  call  on  Mr.  Hills  the 
international  arbitrator  (I  don't  know  his  official  title),  who 
had  invited  me  to  stay  with  him ;  and,  in  the  afternoon,  I 
went  on  board  the  "Ceylon"  P.  &  0.  steamer. 

Three  days  took  us  to  Brindisi;  another  day  to  Ancona; 
and  the  next  morning  found  us  at  Venice.  Here  I  suppose 
I  ought  to  have  remained  some  time ;  but  I  find  by  my 
diary,  rather  to  my  surprise,  that  my  stay  did  not  extend 
beyond  three  days.  Doubtless  my  impatience  to  get  home 
was  the  chief  cause  of  this  abridgment;  joined,  perhaps, 
with  the  fact  that  "  the  stones  of  Venice  "  did  not  produce 
in  me  so  much  enthusiasm  as  in  many.  Not  that  I  failed 
to  derive  much  pleasure ;  but  the  pleasure  was  less  multi- 
tudinous in  its  sources  than  that  which  is  felt,  or  is  alleged 
to  be  felt,  by  the  majority.  This  may  be  seen  from  the  first 
entry  in  my  diary  : — 

"  Venice  at  8  to  9 ;  went  to  Danielli's.  Saw  St.  Mark's,  the  Piazza,  the 
Grand  Canal,  and  some  churches :  fine  day — very  picturesque — general  effect 
fine — individual  things  not." 

Quarries  in  which  men  thought  only  of  getting  stone, 

often  present  picturesque  effects  when  deserted;  whereas 

the  artificial  rock-works  made  when  trying  to  produce  pictu- 

resqueness  are  always  miserable  failures.    Venice  reminded 

me  of  this.     In  the  separate  buildings  in  which  architects 

aimed  at  beauty  they  have  rarely  achieved  it;    but  they 

have  unawares  achieved  it  in  the  assemblages  of  buildings. 


344  UP  THE  NILE.  [1880. 

Houses  severally  placed  without  reference  to  effect,  present 
everywhere  charming  combinations  of  forms  and  colours ; 
so  that,  especially  in  the  smaller  canals,  every  turn 
furnishes  a  picture. 

Astonished  at  these  heretical  opinions,  the  reader  will 
doubtless  ask  for  justifications,  and  I  cannot  well  avoid 
giving  them.  Speaking  generally,  then,  say  of  the  palaces 
along  the  Grand  Canal,  my  first  criticism  is  that  they  are 
fundamentally  defective  in  presenting  to  the  eye  nothing 
more  than  decorated  flat  surfaces.  No  fine  architectural 
effect  can  be  had  without  those  advancing  and  retreating 
masses  which  produce  broad  contrasts  of  light  and  shade 
and  yield  variety  in  the  perspective  lines.  This  is  not  all. 
A  flat  faqade  has  not  only  the  defects  that  its  perspective 
lines  are  monotonous  and  its  contrasts  of  light  and  shade 
insufl&cient  J  but  it  has,  in  too  conspicuous  a  way,  the 
aspect  of  artificiality.  Its  decorative  elements — columns 
placed  against  the  surface,  pilasters  stuck  upon  it,  reveals 
cut  into  it,  string-courses  running  along  it,  plaques  or 
medallions  or  carved  wreaths  attached  in  plain  spaces — are 
all  obviously  designed  for  effect.  They  form  no  needful 
parts  of  the  structure,  but  are  merely  superposed;  and 
clearly  tell  the  spectator  that  they  are  there  simply  to  be 
admired.  But  any  work  of  art  is  faulty  if  it  suggests  an 
eager  desire  for  admiration  in  the  artist — if  it  suggests  that 
neither  the  thought  of  use  nor  the  simple  perception  of 
beauty  moved  him,  but  that  he  was  chiefly  moved  by  love 
of  applause.  It  is  a  recognized  truth  that  that  is  the 
highest  art  which  hides  the  art,  and  an  ornamented  flat 
surface  necessarily  fails  in  this  respect;  since  it  discloses 
unmistakably  the  fact  that  almost  everything  done  to  the 
surface  is  done  for  the  sake  of  appearance.  As  illustra- 
tions of  my  meaning  I  may  name  the  Dario,  the  Corner- 
Spinelli,  and  the  Eezzonico  palaces.  The  best  of  these 
flat /ofades  is  that  of  the  Scuola  di  San  Rocco;  and  it  is  so 
because  the  decorative  element,  less  obtrusive  than  usual, 


^T.  59.]  UP  THE  NILE.  345 

is  also  subordinated  to  the  structural  element  in  sucli  wise 
that  its  lines  are  dependent  on  the  structural  lines. 

Passing  from  this  general  criticism  to  more  special  criti- 
cisms, let  me  single  out  the  Ducal  Palace.  There  are  many 
faults  which  might  be  severally  dwelt  upon — ^the  inelegant 
proportions  of  its  main  dimensions ;  the  dumpy  arches  of 
the  lower  tier,  and  the  dumpy  windows  in  the  wall  above ; 
the  meaningless  diaper  pattern  covering  this  wall,  which 
suggests  something  woven  rather  than  built;  and  the  long 
rows  of  projections  and  spikes  surmounting  the  coping, 
which  remind  one  of  nothing  so  much  as  the  vertebral 
spines  of  a  fish.  But,  not  dwelling  on  these  defects,  let  me 
signalize  a  defect  of  another  order :  the  impression  of 
weakness  which  the  construction  gives.  A  satisfactory 
architectural  work,  if  it  does  not  positively  suggest  stability, 
must,  at  any  rate,  avoid  suggesting  instability.  The  artist 
has  to  consider  the  sum  total  of  a  spectator's  consciousness; 
and  if  one  element  of  that  consciousness  is  a  feeling  of 
insecurity,  however  vague,  that  feeling  is  so  much  deduc- 
tion from  whatever  pleasure  is  yielded  by  the  purely 
aesthetic  characters.  In  the  Ducal  Palace  we  have  a  lower 
tier  of  arches  borne  on  dwarf  columns,  and  above  these  a 
tier  of  more  numerous  arches  on  taller  and  thinner  columns 
which  support  foliated  circles ;  and  then,  surmounting  this 
structure,  we  have  a  large  area  of  wall,  not  much  lightened 
by  openings.  The  general  effect  is  that  of  a  very  heavy 
mass  posed  on  an  assemblage  of  slender  supports.  That 
the  weight  is  not  too  great  for  them  to  bear,  is  true  :  the 
building  stands.  But  the  appearance  is  such  as  to  raise 
the  thought  of  a  dangerous  stress  —  an  uncomfortable 
thought  which  more  or  less  perturbs  the  consciousness  of 
such  beauty  as  there  may  be  in  the  parts. 

And  what  about  St.  Mark's  ?  Well,  I  admit  that  it  is  a 
fine  sample  of  barbaric  architecture.  I  use  the  word 
barbaric  advisedly ;  for  it  has  the  trait  distinctive  of  semi- 
civilized  art — excess  of  decoration.     This  trait  is  seen  in 


346  UP  THE  NILE.  [1880 

an  Egyptian  temple,  with  its  walls  and  columns  covered 
with  coloured  frescoes  and  hieroglyphs.  It  is  seen  in 
oriental  dresses,  of  which  the  fabric  is  almost  hidden  by 
gold  braiding  and  crusts  of  jewellery.  It  is  seen  in  such 
articles  of  Indian  manufacture  as  cabinets  and  boxes, 
having  surfaces  filled  with  fret-works  of  carving.  And 
in  mediaeval  days  throughout  Europe,  it  was  habitually 
displayed  on  articles  belonging  to  those  of  rank — pieces  of 
furniture  profusely  inlaid ;  suits  of  armour  covered  every- 
where with  elaborate  chasing;  swords,  guns,  and  pistols, 
with  blades,  barrels  and  stocks  chased  and  carved  from 
one  end  to  the  other.  The  characteristic  of  barbaric  art  is 
that  it  leaves  no  space  without  ornament ;  and  this  is  the 
characteristic  of  St.  Mark's.  The  spandrils  of  the  lower 
tier  of  arches  are  the  only  parts  of  the  fagade  not  crammed 
with  decorative  work.  This  is  an  error  which  more 
developed  art  avoids.  Practically,  if  not  theoretically,  it 
recognizes  the  fact  that,  to  obtain  the  contrasts  requisite 
for  good  effect,  there  must  be  large  areas  which  are 
relatively  plain,  to  serve  as  foils  to  the  enriched  areas.  A 
work  of  art  which  is  full  of  small  contrasts  and  without 
any  great  contrasts,  sins  against  the  fundamental  principles 
of  beauty;  and  a  contrast  above  all  others  indispensable 
is  that  between  simplicity  and  complexity. 

Archeologically  considered,  St.  Mark's  is  undoubtedly 
precious;  but  it  is  not  precious  sesthetically  considered. 
Unfortunately  many  people  confound  the  two. 

My  last  glance  at  Venice  was  from  the  gondola  which 
took  me  up  the  Grand  Canal  to  the  Railway  Station,  early 
on  the  7th  of  February.  Thence  I  started  for  the  West  and 
reached  Milan  in  the  afternoon. 

Two  days  there  were  pretty  fully  occupied  in  sight- 
seeing :  the  cathedral  being  the  chief  attraction,  I 
see  by  my  diary  that  I  glanced  into  it  on  the  afternoon 
of  my  arrival;  heard  part  of  the  Mass  there  next  day; 


Mt.59.]  up  the  NILE.  347 

and,  before  departing  the  day  after,  "  went  again  to  admire 
the  cathedral". 

Leaving  Milan  on  the  9th,  I  journeyed  home  via  Turin 
and  Paris,  reaching  London  on  the  12th.  The  entry  in  my 
diary  is: — "Home  at  7-10;  heartily  glad — more  pleasure 
than  in  anything  that  occurred  during  my  tour". 

From  a  letter  to  Youmans  written  on  the  13th,  I  may 
quote  a  passage  of  some  interest  which,  though  irrelevant 
to  the  subject-matter  of  the  chapter,  belongs  to  it  by  order 
of  date : — 

"  I  reached  home  last  night  ...  In  Paris  on  Wednesday  I  saw  BailUere,  and 
he  told  me  that  the  French  Minister  of  Education  was  desirous  of  having  an 
edition  of  the  Education  from  which  the  first  chapter  ["  What  Knowledge  is 
of  most  worth  "]  should  be  omitted ;  for  that,  though  he  himself  concurred 
in  its  argument,  there  would  be  much  opposition  if  official  distribution  was 
given  to  a  book  containing  it.  I  agreed  with  Bailli^re  to  let  such  an  edition 
be  published  in  a  very  cheap  form." 

I  should  add  that,  in  giving  my  assent  to  the  publication 
of  such  an  edition,  I  stipulated  that  the  extent  and  nature 
of  the  part  omitted  should  be  specified  in  the  preface. 
This  was  done,  and  the  truncated  book  issued  for  tutorial 
use  as  desired. 


CHAPTER  LVIII. 

ENDING  OF  THE  DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY. 

1874r-81.    ^t.  54—61. 

As  during  a  long  preceding  period,  so  during  the  period 
covered  by  the  foregoing  six  chapters,  there  had  been 
carried  on,  in  addition  to  other  occupations,  the  super- 
intendence of  the  Descriptive  Sociology,  In  chapter  LI 
an  account  was  given  of  this  undertaking  up  to  the  stage 
reached  at  the  close  of  1874  ;  and  here  I  have  to  indicate 
the  course  of  events  connected  with  it  up  to  the  date  now 
arrived  at,  and  then  to  a  date  considerably  in  advance.  I 
may  most  conveniently  do  this  by  stringing  together  a 
number  of  extracts  from  letters  to  my  American  friend. 
One  of  them,  dated  January  22,  1875,  says  : — 
"  The  loss  on  the  Descriptive  Sociology  threatens  to  be  very  great,  at  any 
rate  for  a  long  time  to  come.  I  have  had  the  accounts  of  expenditures  and 
receipts  made  up  to  the  end  of  last  year.  I  find  that  to  that  date,  I  had 
spent  £2170  n  12  m  10 ;  and  that  my  returns  amounted  to  £260  it  17.  To  these 
returns  I  may  add,  as  money  not  yet  received  but  due,  about  £80  from  sales 
of  the  three  first  numbers  during  the  last  half-year ;  and  I  suppose  that  the 
Bum  due  from  your  side  will,  when  received,  swell  the  proceeds  of  sales  to 
about  £400." 

A  letter  of  27  Feb.  again  touches  upon  the  question  of 

loss : — 

"  It  is  clear  that,  as  things  now  look,  I  must  stop.  The  Savage  Baces 
now  printing  and  in  manuscript,  must  be  published ;  and  also  the  parts  on 
which  CoUier,  Scheppig,  and  Duncan,  are  now  engaged ;  but  after  this  is 
done  I  shall  be  disinclined  to  sacrifice  further  large  sums,  and  give  myself 
continued  trouble,  for  the  benefit  of  .  .  .  ." 

The  correspondence  after  this  contains  nothing  concern- 


Mt.  64.]  END  OF  DESGBIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY.        349 

ing  the  matter  that  is  worth  quoting  nntil  midsummer 
1876 ;  when,  on  July  10,  I  wrote : — 

"  Nos.  5  (&  6  of  the  Det.  Soc.  are  still  in  the  press.  No.  5  I  hope  to  issue 
as  soon  as  I  return  in  the  autumn;  but  No.  6  (the  Hebrews)  will  not,  I 
expect,  be  ready  untU  the  beginning  of  next  year.  I  have  abandoned 
the  Hindoo  civilization,  finding  that  Duncan  did  not  wish  to  continue  the 
compilation,  and  being  very  glad  to  escape  the  further  trouble  and  loss ;  so 
that  I  shaU  cease  with  No.  8.  " 

I  evidently  looked  forward  to  this  final  issue  after  no 
great  delay ;  but  I  was  doomed  to  disappointment. 

For  now  affairs  became  considerably  complicated,  and 
my  worries  much  increased,  in  two  ways.  The  rate  of 
compilation  was  greatly  diminished  by  the  Hi-health  of  the 
compilers,  brought  on  by  over- work  notwithstanding  my 
frequent  protests ;  and  it  was  further  diminished  by  the 
premature  departure  from  England  of  one  of  them.  Dr. 
Scheppig's  adopted  career — that  of  a  teacher — ^he  had,  it 
appeared,  simply  intended  to  suspend  for  a  time  when  he 
made  his  engagement  with  me :  partly  wishing  to  see  some- 
thing of  English  life  and  institutions.  After  three  years 
he  became  impatient  to  resume  his  career;  knowing  that, 
according  to  German  regulations,  he  had  to  pass  through 
an  ordained  series  of  stages,  and  that  longer  delay  would 
postpone  by  so  much  the  attainment  of  a  good  position. 
Hence,  at  the  beginning  of  1876,  he  asked  my  permission  to 
accept  a  post  in  Germany ;  representing  to  me  that  he  would 
be  able  to  finish  the  work  he  had  in  hand — the  Hebrews — 
before  leaving.  The  result  well  exemplifies  the  illusions 
caused  by  hope.  When,  towards  April  1876,  the  time  for 
going  came,  he  had  far  from  finished  his  task,  and  had  to 
take  it  with  him.  This  explanation  will  make  comprehensible 
the  following  paragraph  in  a  letter  dated  Jan.  3,  1877. 
"  CoUier  is  quite  broken  down.  He  relapsed  during  the  spring  at  the  time 
when  he  became  a  candidate  for  that  Professorship  which  he  foolishly 
thought  he  would  be  able  to  undertake  along  with  the  completion  of  my 
work,  and  which,  instead,  sufficed,  even  by  the  excitement  of  the  candidature, 
to  put  him  wrong  again.    He  has  never  got  right  since,  and  has  been  two 


350  END  OF  DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY.    [1875. 

months  doing  nothing.  I  had  a  letter  from  him  this  morning  saying  that  he 
was  no  better.  The  evil  is  very  serious,  for  this  prostration  of  his  state 
which  has  now  lasted  so  long  from  the  time  since  it  first  commenced  two 
years  ago,  greatly  adds  to  the  cost  of  the  compilation  of  the  French 
Civilization.  The  compilation  alone  of  this  part  will  cost  me  £500  at 
least,  if,  indeed,  I  succeed  in  getting  it  completed,  about  which  I  begin  to 
have  my  doubts.  Scheppig  too,  I  fear,  is  greatly  out  of  health.  His  copy 
for  the  printer  has  been  coming  very  slowly  of  late,  although  I  was  led  to 
suppose  there  was  not  much  to  be  done  to  it ;  and  although  I  wrote  a 
fortnight  ago,  inquiring  about  his  health,  he  has  not  replied.  I  very  much 
fear  that  he  is  worse.  I  repent  greatly  of  my  foolish  good-nature  in  agreeing 
early  last  year  that  he  should  apply  for  the  post  that  he  now  holds  at 
Holstein.  I  listened  to  his  representations  that  he  would  be  able  to  finish 
the  work  before  he  went.  He  utterly  miscalculated,  was  unable  to  anything 
like  finish  it,  but  took  a  great  part  of  the  work  with  him  to  complete 
there,  and  has  not  completed  it  by  a  great  deal  even  now." 

The    next    notewortliy    report    of    progress    is    dated 
Feb.  16,  1878:— 

"A  few  days  ago  I  made  up  my  annual  accounts  of  the  Descriptive 
Sociology,  and  I  find  that  I  have  now  spent  £3,200  and  odd,  while  I  have  got 
back  from  England  and  America  £800  and  odd.  That  I  shall  ever  in  any 
lapse  of  time  repay  even  printing  expenses,  is  obviously  out  of  the  question ; 
for  I  now  see  that  the  sales  of  the  parts  that  have  been  issued  some  little  time 
do  not  suffice  to  pay  interest  upon  the  capital  invested  in  them.  As  soon  as 
No.  VI,  the  American  Eaces,  is  through  the  press,  which  it  will  be  I  hope 
early  in  the  autumn,  I  shall  go  to  press  with  the  French,  which  will  be  the 
last.  The  Hebrews  is  still  dragging  its  slow  length  along,  not  above  two- 
thirds  of  the  extracts  being  as  yet  printed.  I  suspect  as  things  are  going  on 
it  will  be  another  year  before  that  is  ready." 

In  the  slow  progress  of  the  undertaking  nothing  further 
is  to  be  noted  in  correspondence  until  a  passage  dated 
Oct.  6.  1880,  which  runs: — "The  printing  of  this  part 
[Hebrews  and  Phoenicians]  has  cost  me  £320,  saying 
nothing  of  the  cost  of  compilation."  And  then,  in  a  letter 
of  Dec.  2,  comes  this  further  reference  to  it: — 
♦'  This  number  of  the  "  Hebrews  and  Phoenicians  "  has  not  yet  had  much 
notice,  and  there  has  been  no  sign  of  such  extra  sale  as  I  had  anticipated  ; 
BO  you  had  better  beware  how  you  run  to  any  expense  in  the  anticipation  of 
a  demand.  The  stupidity  of  the  public  passes  all  comprehension.  Here  is 
a  thing  which,  as  Hooker  says,  "every  parson  ought  to  have",  and  yet  there 
is  no  demand  for  it." 

It  seemed  a  reasonable  anticipation  that,  if  not  to  the 
clergy  as  a  body,  yet  to  a  considerable  sprinkling  of  them, 


JEt.  58.]  END  OF  DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY.        351 

a  work  wliicli  presented  the  successive  phases  of  Hebrew 
life  under  all  its  aspects  in  a  way  convenient  for  refer- 
ence, would  appear  worth  possessing.  But  authors  and 
publishers  alike  are  often  utterly  wrong.  Books  of  which 
they  have  small  hopes  prove  great  successes,  and  books  of 
great  promise  prove  failures.  Neither  at  the  above  date, 
nor  during  the  subsequent  months  or  years,  did  this 
number  of  the  Descrijjtive  Sociology  command  greater 
attention  than  the  others. 

Nearly  another  year  had  to  elapse  before  this  under- 
taking, so  disastrous  to  the  compilers  in  health  and  to  me 
in  purse,  was  brought  to  a  close.  A  letter  to  Youmans 
dated  Oct.  27,  1881,  contains  the  passage: — 
"  At  length  the  lingering  process  of  getting  No.  8  of  the  Descriptive 
Sociology  through  the  press  is  complete.  Collier  has  been  so  prostrate  that 
he  has  actually  taken  more  than  a  year  to  get  the  tables  corrected  and  printed. 
I  enclose  herewith  a  copy  of  the  notice  of  cessation,  from  which  you  mil  see 
that  the  pecuniary  results  are  sufficiently  disastrous.  I  am  heartily  glad, 
irrespective  of  this,  to  get  the  business  out  of  hand,  so  that  it  may  no  longer 
occupy  my  attention. 

Collier  has  written  to  me  respecting  the  proposed  introduction  to  the 
Descriptive  Sociology.  He  is,  however,  so  far  shattered  in  health  that  he 
does  not  think  he  could  work  at  it  more  than  an  hour  a  day." 

The  "Notice  of  Cessation,''  above  referred  to,  ran  as 
follows : — 

"With  the  issue  of  the  Vlllth  part,  herewith,  the  publication  of  the 
Descriptive  Sociology  will  be  closed. 

The  collecting,  classifying,  and  abstracting  of  the  materials  contained  in 
the  parts  now  completed,  was  commenced  in  1867 ;  and  the  work,  carried  on 
at  first  by  one  compiler,  subsequently  by  two,  and  for  some  years  by  three, 
has  continued  down  to  the  present  time. 

On  going  through  his  accounts,  Mr.  Spencer  finds  that  during  the 
fourteen  years  which  have  elapsed  since  the  undertaking  was  commenced, 
the  payments  to  compilers,  added  to  the  costs  of  printing,  etc.,  have 
amounted  to  £4,425  15.^.  7^. ;  while,  up  to  the  present  time,  the  returns 
(including  those  from  America)  have  been  £1,054  12s.  1^. — returns  which, 
when  they  have  been  increased  by  the  amount  derived  from  the  first  sales  of 
the  part  now  issued,  will  leave  a  deficit  of  about  £3,250. 

Even  had  there  been  shown  considerable  appreciation  of  the  work,  it 
would  still  have  been  out  of  the  question  to  continue  it  in  face  of  the  fact 


352  END  OF  DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY.    [1880. 

that,  after  the  small  sales  which  immediately  follow  publication,  the  returus, 
■0  far  from  promising  to  repay  expenses  in  coarse  of  time,  do  not  even  yield 
five  per  cent,  interest  on  the  capital  smik. 

Should  the  day  ever  come  when  the  love  for  the  personalities  of  history 
is  less  and  the  desire  for  its  instructive  facts  greater,  those  who  occupy  them- 
selves in  picking  out  the  gold  from  the  dross  will  perhaps  be  able  to  publish 
their  results  without  inflicting  on  themselves  losses  too  grievous  to  be  borne — 
nay,  may  possibly  receive  some  thanks  for  their  pains.' 

Perhaps  I  ought  to  add  that  the  above-stated  loss  is  much 
less  than  that  which  vrould  be  set  down  by  an  accountant. 
As  is  implied  by  the  figures,  the  amount  laid  out  is  the  total 
which  resulted  from  adding  each  year  the  sum  spent  in  that 
year,  and  similarly  with  the  proceeds  :  no  account  being 
taken  of  interest  in  either  case.  If  the  amount  expended 
in  successive  years  had  been  considered  as  otherwise 
invested,  in  securities  yielding,  say,  4  per  cent. ;  and  if,  as 
I  suppose  they  would  have  been  by  a  man  of  business,  the 
sums  sacrificed  in  loss  of  interest  on  the  progressively 
increasing  total  during  the  fourteen  years,  had  been  taken 
into  calculation,  the  loss  specified  would  have  been  con- 
siderably more  than  £4000. 

Since  the  notice  was  issued  the  sales,  small  as  they  were, 
have  so  greatly  decreased  that  nothing  like  5  per  cent,  upon 
the  capital  sunk  is  obtained.  The  returns  for  last  year  (I 
write  in  1889),  after  deducting  trade-profits  and  the  costs 
of  paper,  printing,  and  binding,  yielded  a  little  more  than 
one  per  cent,  on  the  irrecoverable  outlay. 


CHAPTER  LIX. 
POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

1880—82.     ^t.  60—62. 

Already  in  October  1879,  wHle  the  volume  on  Ceremonial 
Institutions  was  passing  through  the  press,  and  there 
remained  nothing  for  me  to  do  to  it  beyond  correcting  the 
proofs,  the  next  division,  Political  Institutions,  had  been 
commenced :  the  first  half  of  the  month  having  been 
devoted  to  the  preparation  of  materials,  and  much  of  the 
latter  part  to  the  writing  of  the  "  Preliminary  "  chapter. 
On  Oct.  8  I  wrote  :— 

"  It  is  a  big  business  even  to  prepare  the  materials,  and  it  will  be  a  very 
big  business  to  properly  deal  with  them.  In  fact  I  feel  I  am  about  to 
commence  the  most  arduous  part  of  my  undertaking — being,  as  it  is,  so 
immensely  extensive  and  so  immensely  complex.  However,  the  organizing 
ideas  are  making  themselves  fairly  clear,  and  I  have  hopes  that  it  will  work 
out  satisfactorily,  and  that,  having  worked  out  satisfactorily,  it  will  be  of  very 
great  importance  in  rationalizing  peoples  ideas ;  or  at  least  the  ideas  of  those 
who  are  sufficiently  advanced  to  be  capable  of  assimilating  it." 

The  decision,  made  on  the  31st  of  the  month,  to  go  to 
Egypt,  was  joined  with  the  intention  of  writing  further 
chapters  during  the  voyage  up  and  down  the  Nile  ;  and  to 
this  end  I  took  with  me  a  considerable  quantity  of  classified 
extracts  and  memoranda :  deciding  that  "  I  must  revert  to 
primitive  practices  and  be  my  own  amanuensis".  But,  as 
is  implied  by  the  last  chapter  but  one,  these  preparations 
and  resolves  proved  futile.  Though  one  of  the  young  ladies 
of  our  party  kindly  offered  to  write  to  my  dictation,  yet  my 
mood  was  such  that  nothing  came  of  the  offer ;  and  the 

23 


354  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1881. 

packet  of  materials  I  had  taken  with  me  was  brought  back 
unopened :  the  only  furtherance  of  my  work  being,  perhaps, 
that  which  resulted  from  contact  with  people  in  a  lower 
stage  of  civilization. 

Concerning  the  course  of  my  writing  during  the  period 
covered  by  this  chapter,  not  very  much  needs  here  be 
said.  I  will  note  only  that  I  decided  to  treat  the  successive 
chapters  of  Political  Institutions  as  I  had  treated  those  of 
Oeremonial  Institutions.  I  decided  to  publish  them,  or  at 
any  rate  a  number  of  them,  serially ;  and  I  made  arrange- 
ments, like  those  before  made,  with  the  Fortnightly  Review 
in  England,  with  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  in  America, 
and  with  periodicals  in  France,  Germany,  and  Italy.  In 
this  case  I  did  not  extend  the  simultaneous  publication  of 
translations  to  Hungary  and  Russia  :  why  I  do  not  now 
remember ;  but  I  think  because  it  did  not  seem  worth  while 
to  take  the  extra  trouble  involved.  Adding  only  that  the 
first  of  the  chapters  thus  published  made  its  appearance 
in  Nov.  1880,  and  the  last  (in  England  at  least)  in 
July  1881,  I  pass  on  to  narrate  the  incidents  which 
accompanied  this  portion  of  my  work. 

And  here  I  am  reminded  that  I  have  not  said  anything 
about  the  daily  routine  I  went  through  during  the  years 
now  passing.  Some  three  chapters  back,  a  transcribed 
portion  of  my  diary  presented  in  detail  my  occupations  and 
amusements  during  an  autumn  vacation;  and  it  seems  fit 
that  I  should  somewhere  give  a  like  transcript  from  the 
register  of  my  occupations  and  amusements  during  a 
portion  of  the  London  season.  To  avoid  the  need  for 
selection,  I  will  take  the  interval  between  my  return  from 
Egypt  and  the  end  of  March :  omitting  the  first  week, 
during  which,  after  three  months'  absence,  I  had  of  course 
scarcely  settled  down  into  the  usual  order,  either  of  work 
or  of  social  life. 
'February  22nd  [Sunday]: — Reading  and  Borting  mems ;  Club;   dined  at 


^T.  60.]         POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  355 

Busk's — Allman  and  wife.  23rd: — New  secretary — Mr.  Button;  letters 

and  sorting  mems ;  Club  ;  dined  there,  Hirst  and  Debua.  24th  : — Letters 

and  sorting  mems ;  Athenaeum  committee  ;  dined  at  Club — Tyndall,  Hirst,  and 
Debus.  25th : — Letters ;  reading  French  tables  for  extracts ;  business ;  Club ; 
dined  there — Hirst,  Debus.  26th : — Reading  French  tables  for  extracts ; 
Club ;  dined  there — Hirst.  27th : — Commenced  "  Political  Organization  "  ; 
dined  at  Club — Hirst,  Debus.  28th: — "  Political  Organization  ";  Club ; 
dined  at  Tyndall's — Huxley,  Dean  Stanley,  Hirst,  Lady  Claud  Hamilton, 
Miss  Hamilton,  &c.  29th  [Sunday] : — Eevising  draft  of  Autobio.  ;  dined  at 
Club— Hirst  and  Debus.  March  1st : — "Political  Organization  "  ;  Club  as 
usual.  2nd: — "  Political  Organization";  Club;  dined  with  Miss  North — 
Holman  Hunt,  Fergusson,  Galton,  Richmond,  Maskelyne,  &o.  3rd : — 
"  Political  Organization  "  ;  Club ;  dined  with  Frankland — meeting  Spottis- 
wood,  Hooker,  Huxley,  Debus,  Tyndall,  &c.  4th : — "  PoUtical  Organiza- 
tion"; Club;  X  dinner.  5th: — "  Political  Organization  "  ;  Club;  dined 
there — Hirst.  6th: — "Political  Organization  ";  Club;  to  Kew  and  dined 
with  Hooker — met  Siemens,  Masters,  and  Henslow,  7th  [Sunday]  :— 

Revising  Autobio. ;  walk  with  Cobb  and  [Arthur]  Cohen  ;  called  on  Campbells  ; 
Club ;  dined  there — Hirst  and  Debus.  8th : — Finished  "Political  Organi- 

zation" ;  dined  at  Club;  went  to  Criterion  Theatre.  9th: — Arranging 

mems ;  Athenaaum  conmiittee — Rule  II  election ;  called  on  Theresa  Potter  to 
inquire  about  the  travellers ;  dined  at  Club — Morley.  10th : — Arranging 

mems;  began  "Political  Integration";  dined  at  Club — Hirst;  Soirie  at 
Spottiswoode's.  11th  : — "  Political  Integration  "  ;  dined  at  Club.  12th : 
— "  Political  Integration  "  ;  Club.  13th  : — "  Political  Integration  "  ;  Club  . 
dined  with  Lord  Arthur  Russell — met  Lord  and  Lady  Sligo,  Lord  and  Lady 
Reay,  General  McCrealock,  &c.  14th  [Sunday] : — Miscellaneous  ;  called  on 
Mrs.  Lewes;  dined  at  Club — TyndaU,  Hirst,  and  Debus.  15th  : — Revising  ; 
dined  at  Club — Roupell,  Hirst,  and  Debus.  16th  : — Revising  ;  Club  ;  dined 

at  Galton's — Romanes,  Maskelyne,  Strachey,  Miss  Lawrences,  &c.,  Ac. 
17th : — Revising ;  dined  at  Club.  18th  : — Correspondence    with    Collier 

all  morning — no    amanuensis ;    dined    at    Club.  19th : — Ditto,   Ditto  ; 

Athenaeum  House- Committee — selecting  cooks;  dined  at  Club.  20th: — 

Revising ;  Club  ;  dined  at  Smalley's — Lord  Reay,  A.  Forbes,  Lord  Houghton, 
Elton,     Cartwright,     &c.  21st    [Sunday] : — Unwell ;   dined    at    Club. 

22nd  : — Revising ;  dined  at  Club — Hirst,  Debus.  23rd  : — Revising  ;  Club  ; 
dined     at     Harrison's — Pigott,   Paul,    &c.  24th  : — Revising  ;    looking 

after  refitting  of  my  study,  and  arranging  books  &a. ;  dined  at  Club. 
2.5th  : — Revising  ;  dined  at  Club  and  came  home  to  meet  Lott.  26th  : — 
With  Lott  to  Richmond  ;  dined  there  ;  down  the  Thames  to  Kew  ;  home  at 
6J.  27th: — Revising;  afternoon  with  Lott  to  Lyceum,  to  see  Merchant 

of  Venice ;  evening,  caUed  on  Baileys  [old  friends  we  made  in  Switzer- 
land in  '53].  28th  [Sunday]: — Loch  came  to  spend  the  day;  afternoon, 
called  on  Bishopp  [an  old  engineering  friend] ;  dined  at  St.  James 
restaurant;  evening   at  Busk's.         29th:— Over     with     Lott    to    Eumore 

23* 


356  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1881. 

Park  and  spent  the  day  with  Loch ;  walked  to  Crohamhurst.  30th : — 
Lott  went  home  ;  new  secr3tary,  Mr.  Edmunds  ;  dictating  *•  Political  Integra- 
tion ";  dined  at  Club.  31st : — "  Political  Integration  "  ;  Club ;  dined  there" 
These  entries  may  be  taken  as  fair  representatives,  save 
in  two  respects.  It  seems  that  from  the  want  of  a  secretary 
during  part  of  the  time,  my  morning's  work  did  not 
proceed  in  the  ordinary  uniform  way — was  not  indicated, 
as  it  mostly  was,  by  the  title  of  a  chapter  repeated  day 
after  day,  followed  after  a  while  by  the  title  of  a  subsequent 
chapter.  And  then  I  see  no  mention  of  music.  Usually, 
in  the  space  of  a  month,  a  concert,  public  or  private, 
would  appear  in  the  record  of  my  relaxations. 

If  I  did  not  go  to  him  at  Easter,  Lott  usually  came  to 
me ;  and  this  year  a  special  motive  for  coming  had  been  to 
hear  all  about  my  doings  in  Egypt.  Doubtless  among  the 
things  I  told  him,  was  something  equivalent  to  the 
following  passage  written  to  Youmans  on  April  13  : — 
"  I  am  glad  to  report  myself  as  well — better  indeed  than  I  have  been  for 
a  long  time.  Notwithstanding  drawbacks,  the  break  in  my  ordinary  life 
which  the  excursion  to  Egypt  involved,  seems  to  have  been  decidedly 
beneficial,  and  has  apparently  worked  some  kind  of  constitutional  change  ; 
for,  marvellous  to  relate,  I  am  now  able  to  drink  beer  with  impunity  and  I 
think  with  benefit — a  thing  I  have  not  been  able  to  do  for  these  15  years 
or  more."  [Long  desistance  from  work  was  probably  a  chief  cause.] 
On  May  3,  referring  to  the  same  subject,  I  wrote  ; — 

"  I  was  60  on  Tuesday  last.  My  vigour  is  pretty  well  shown  by  the  fact 
that  I  found  myself  running  up  stairs  two  steps  at  a  time,  as  I  commonly  do." 
It  seems  strange  that,  considering  my  frequent  bouts  of 
dyspepsia  and  perpetual  bad  nights,  I  should  have  retained 
so  much  vitality.  The  next  extract,  dated  21  June,  con- 
cerns another  matter  : — 

"  Enclosed  I  send  you  a  note  which  will  please  you,  and  which  will 
furnish  you  with  an  admirable  handle  against  the  Classicists.  It  is  from 
the  Greek  minister  here ;  and  accompanies,  as  you  see  by  its  contents,  a 
Greek  translation  made  by  a  late  Minister  of  Education.  The  surprising 
and  extremely  telling  fact  is  that  this  thing  which  the  Greeks  have  first 
undertaken  to  translate,  is  the  first  chapter  of  the  Education — "  What 
knowledge  is  of  most  worth  ". 
Anomalous  enough !     While  in  England  the  educational 


Mt,  60.]         POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  357 

authorities  cry  "  Greek  Literature  rather  than  Science/"'  in 
Greece  they  cry  "  Science  rather  than  Greek  literature." 

Whitsuntide  found  me  at  Clifton :  duty  more  than 
pleasure  being  the  occasion  of  my  journey  there.  Since 
the  death  of  my  uncle  Thomas,  named  in  an  early  part 
of  this  work,  I  have  made  no  mention  of  my  aunt  Anna. 
But  on  looking  back  I  count  up  four  visits  to  see  her, 
which  were  among  those  unrecorded  excursions  referred 
to  in  a  recent  chapter :  two  being  to  Hinton^  where,  after 
the  death  of  her  brother,  Mr.  Brooke,  she  lived  for  some 
years  with  her  sister-in-law  and  niece ;  and  two  being  to 
Churchill  near  Bristol,  where  she  has,  since  the  death  of 
her  sister-in-law,  lived  with  the  clergyman  to  whom  her 
niece  was  married.  Churchill  is  within  easy  reach  of 
Clifton.  On  going  thither  I  learned  that  she  was  at  Weston- 
super-Mare.  There  I  went  next  day,  and  found  her 
bearing  cheerfully  her  invalid-life  in  bed,  borne  for  years 
before  and  years  since — evidently  consoled  by  those 
thoughts  of  compensation  hereafter  which  doubtless,  in 
the  present  state  of  the  world,  make  the  ills  of  hfe  more 
tolerable  to  many  than  they  would  else  be. 

Before  returning  to  town  I  made  a  detour  to  Stourbridge, 
with  a  view  to  finding  an  answer  to  the  genealogical  ques- 
tion named  in  a  preceding  chapter ;  but  I  failed,  as  before. 

In  the  course  of  his  career  an  author  finds  that  each 
new  book  is  a  new  hostage  to  fortune.  Like  a  child  cf  the 
body,  to  which  Bacon's  metaphor  tacitly  refers,  a  child  of 
the  mind  becomes  a  source  of  troubles  and  anxieties ;  so 
that,  as  he  advances  in  life,  more  and  more  of  the  author's  time 
is  taken  up  with  the  increasing  distractions  which  accom- 
pany the  increasing  number  of  volumes  published.  I  do  not 
refer  only  to  the  fact  that  each  additional  work  furnishes  a 
further  vulnerable  place  to  antagonists ;  though  this  is  of 
course  a  large  part  of  the  result.  But  I  refer  also  to  the 
fact  that  each  additional   work  brings  after  it  an  extra 


358  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1881. 

series  of  transactions  whicli  augment  the  complications 
of  life  in  subsequent  years — the  trouble  of  revision,  the 
attention  required  to  bring  things  up  to  date,  the  business 
of  new  editions. 

This  spring  two  interruptions  hence  arising  occurred; 
of  which  the  first  was  entailed  by  an  apparent  need  for 
self-defence.  By  Mr.  Malcolm  Guthrie  there  had  been 
published  a  volume,  On  Mr.  Spencer's  Formula  of  Evolu- 
tion, aiming  to  refute  the  doctrine  set  forth  in  First 
Principles;  and  the  Rev.  Prof.  Birks  had  issued  a  book 
entitled  Modem  Physical  Fatalism  and  the  Doctrine  of 
Evolution,  including  an  examination  of  Mr.  H.  Spencer's 
First  Principles.  Besides  these  major  attacks,  formidable 
if  measured  by  bulk,  there  were  some  minor  ones,  less 
bulky,  but  more  worthy  of  notice,  coming  from  Prof.  Tait, 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Kirkman,  Mr.  Mathew  Arnold,  the  North 
American  Review,  and  Prof.  ClifFe  Leslie.  A  new  edition  of 
First  Principles  was  called  for;  and,  thinking  it  worth 
while  to  deal  with  these  antagonists  in  an  Appendix,  I 
devoted  to  the  task  parts  of  June  and  July. 

The  other  interruption  had  a  different  origin.  When  I 
agreed  to  publish  The  Study  of  Sociology  in  the  "  Inter- 
national Scientific  Series,"  I  stipulated  that  after  a  specified 
period  I  should  be  at  liberty  to  issue  an  edition  of  the 
work  along  with  my  other  works.  The  year  in  which  I 
became  free  to  do  this  was  1880;  and  for  several  preceding 
years  I  had,  during  intervals  of  leisure,  been  slowly 
removing  such  defects  of  expression  as  I  found  in  the  book, 
and  preparing  a  postscript.  I  think  I  have  before  named 
the  fact  that  so  far  from  disliking  the  process  of  polishing, 
as  most  writers  do,  I  have  a  partiality  for  it ;  and  cannot 
let  any  piece  of  work  pass  so  long  as  it  seems  to  me  possible 
to  improve  it.  The  library  edition  of  The  Study  of  Sociology, 
published  in  July  of  this  year,  furnished  a  marked  illustra- 
tion of  this  trait.  I  had  of  course  revised  the  original 
MS.;   I  had  revised  the  proofs  before  publication  in  the 


^T.  60.]         POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  359 

Contemporary  ;  I  had  revised  the  proofs  of  the  re-published 
articles  forming  the  volume  as  it  appeared  in  the  "  Inter- 
national Scientific  Series'*;  I  had  revised  this  volume  in 
preparation  for  a  final  edition  ;  and,  lastly,  I  had  revised 
the  successive  sheets  of  this  final  edition  as  they  passed 
through  the  press.  Thus  every  sentence  in  the  work 
had  passed  under  my  eye  for  correction  five  times;  and 
each  time  there  was  rarely  a  page  which  did  not  bear  some 
erasures  and  marginal  marks.  There  are  those  who  hold 
that  changes  of  expression,  carried  even  to  a  much  smaller 
extent,  are  commonly  injurious;  and  it  may  be  that  the  first 
mode  of  expression  is  occasionally  the  best.  But  I  am  of 
opinion  that  where  an  alteration  is  also  a  condensation  it  is 
nearly  always  an  improvement. 

Occasionally  very  ludicrous  effects  are  caused  by  the 
printing  of  sentences  which  were  probably  not  read  over 
after  they  were  written.  I  have  noted  in  the  course  of 
years  two  examples  worth  recording.  One  was  in  an 
advertisement  which  I  cut  out  of  27te  Times,  and  have 
now  before  me.     It  begins  as  follows: — 

"  Mb.  Henby  Leslie's  Choib,  June  11. — Pbogbammb  : — Part  1.  Sacred 
Music. — Motett,  for  double  choir, '  The  Spirit  also  helpeth  us '  (in  compliance 
with  very  numerous  requests),  Bach." 

The  other  was  still  more  remarkable.     Some  dozen  years 

since    there    arose   a   mania   for   ornamenting   houses   at 

Christmas  with  illuminated  texts ;  and  in  response  to  the 

demand   for  these,  there   appeared  an   advertisement   of 

''Marcus  Ward's  Christmas  Wall  Decorations".     To  guide 

purchasers  in  ordering  those  which  would  fit  spaces  on 

their  walls,  Messrs.  Ward  &  Co.  had  specified  after  each 

text    the   length    of    the    scroll    occupied    by  it.      This 

memorandum  of  length  gave  to  more  than  one  of   them 

some  oddity  of  appearance ;  but  finally  there  came  this  : — ■ 

"'Unto  toxj  is  bobn  a  Savioub'.    About  6  feet  long." 

This   advertisement,   which    also   I  have   preserved,  will 


360  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1881. 

be     found     in     tlie     Athenceum     for     Dec.      15,     1877, 
page  788. 

Already  I  have  narrated  two  strange  coincidences  that 
have  occurred  to  me ;  and  because  it  furnished  the 
occasion  for  a  third,  I  must  say  something  about  my 
visit  to  Scotland  this  autumn. 

After  a  fortnight  at  Inveroran,  I  moved  on  to  Loch 
Houm-head.  A  deer-forest,  spreading  over  some  of  the 
mountains  adjacent,  had  been  for  several  years  tenanted 
by  Mr.  Robert  Birkbeck ;  and  by  him  I  had  been  invited 
there.  A  small  yacht  which  fetched  me  from  Glenelg,  and 
in  which  various  excursions  were  made,  added  to  the 
pleasures  of  the  place  ;  and  partly  in  rambling,  partly  in 
sea-fishing,  partly  in  yachting,  a  pleasant  ten  days  was 
passed.  During  my  stay,  reference  was  made  to  Black's 
novels,  the  scenes  of  many  of  which  lie  on  the  west  coast 
of  Scotland.  This  recalled  to  me  a  curious  coincidence 
which  had  occurred  some  years  before  while  I  was  staying 
at  Ardtornish.  I  was  reading  A  Daughter  of  Heth.  At 
intervals  I  had  got  through  the  first  volume  and  com- 
menced the  second,  when,  one  afternoon,  it  was  announced 
that  the  Dobhran  was  about  to  start  for  Oban  to  meet 
friends  who  were  arriving  from  Glasgow.  Knowing  that 
there  would  be  a  good  deal  of  unoccupied  time,  I  took 
with  me  this  second  volume.  We  arrived  in  Oban  Bay  half 
an  hour  before  the  steamer  was  due,  and  cast  anchor.  During 
the  interval  of  waiting  I  resumed  my  novel.  Presently  I 
came  to  a  part  which  told  how  the  heroine  was  taken  on  a 
yachting  excursion  by  her  friends,  and  went  to  Oban  Bay. 
This  odd  Coincidence  between  the  fictitious  yachting  and 
the  actual  yachting  I  narrated.  Now  comes  the  strange 
fact.  If  not  the  next  day,  then  certainly  within  a  few 
days,  I  took  up  a  number  of  the  Gornhill  Magazine  in 
which  Mr.  Black's  novel.  White  Wings,  was  being  serially 


^T.  60.]         POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  361 

published,  and  read  a  chapter  containing  an  account  of  a 
visit  paid  by  the  heroine  and  her  friends  to  Loch  Houm ! 
The  coincidence  was  not,  on  thjs  second  occasion,  complete ; 
for  I  was  not  on  board  Mr.  Birkbeck's  yacht  while  reading. 
But  the  yacht  was  lying  out  in  the  loch,  within  two  hundred 
yards  of  the  window  at  which  I  sat. 

For  this  last  of  the  three  coincidences  I  have  named, 
there  is  no  other  evidence  than  my  own  word ;  but  of  the 
others  there  exist,  among  my  papers,  documentary  proofs. 
The  one  described  in  the  first  volume,  showing  that,  at  an 
interval  of  four  years,  I  made  two  engagements  of  exactly 
the  same  kind,  in  which  my  two  superiors  were  both  of  the 
same  nationality,  had  the  same  surnames,  and  the  same 
christian  names,  is  one  which  might  as  readily  have 
occurred  to  any  one  else  as  to  me ;  and  one  which  I 
suppose  must  from  time  to  time  be  paralleled  in  the  degree 
of  correspondence,  if  not  in  the  kind  of  correspondence. 
Now  comes  the  lesson.  There  is  no  more  reason  for 
expecting  correspondence  between  two  such  sets  of  facts 
in  actual  life,  than  between  such  a  set  in  actual  life  and 
such  a  set  in  a  dream.  Considered  as  a  question  of 
probabilities,  the  last  correspondence  is  just  as  likely  as 
the  first.  See  then  the  implication.  Millions  of  people  in 
Great  Britain  dream  every  night;  and  in  the  space  of  a 
year  there  are  probably  at  least  a  hundred  millions  of 
dreams  vivid  enough  to  be  recalled  on  awaking.  Clearly, 
then,  in  view  of  this  occasional  correspondence  between 
two  sets  of  events  in  actual  life,  we  must  infer  that  out  of 
this  enormous  number  of  cases  there  will  occasionally  be 
a  correspondence  between  a  set  of  events  in  actual  life  and 
a  set  of  events  in  a  dream ;  and  when  one  such  occurs 
it  will  appear  like  a  fulfilment.  May  we  not  say  that 
the  alleged  fulfilments  are  not  more  common  than,  in 
conformity  with  the  law  of  probability,  we  may  expect 
them  to  be? 

My  farewell  to  my  friends,  and  to  the  grand  scenery  of 


362  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1881. 

Loch  Hourn^  was  made  on  the  25th  August,  and  on  the  next 
day  I  arrived  in  London. 

As  narrated  above,  there  had  arisen  in  the  spring  two  of 
those  eddies  or  backwaters  by  which  the  stream  of  an 
author's  life  is  more  and  more  impeded  as  it  lengthens  and 
broadens;  and  now  in  the  autumn  there  arose  another. 
Its   nature   is   indicated    in    the    following   extract   from 

correspondence : — 

"As  jon  have,  I  daresay,  observed,  I  have  been  a  good  deal  attacked  by 
Tarions  oritios  as  to  the  "incoherence",  as  they  call  it,  of  my  psychological 
system,  and  the  "  confused "  character  of  my  metaphysics :  the  confusion 
which  they  ascribe  to  me,  being,  as  I  conceive,  due  to  their  own  inability  to 
co-ordinate  the  several  aspects  of  the  system  as  they  are  now  separately 
stated.  As  I  hinted  in  the  course  of  my  reply  to  criticisms,  written  some 
years  ago,  I  had  originally  intended  to  write  a  division  under  the  head 
"Congruities",  in  which  the  harmony  existing  between  the  several  parts 
should  be  pointed  out,  and  had  refrained  from  doing  this  because  I  thought 
the  harmony  was  sufficiently  conspicuous ;  but  that,  as  the  criticisms  passed 
proved  that  this  was  not  the  case,  I  might  hereafter  add  this  division.  The 
third  edition  of  the  Psychology,  I  find,  is  now  gone,  with  the  exception  of  fifty 
copies ;  and  finding  this,  I  am  inclined  to  prepare  this  additional  division  for 
the  fourth  edition.  As  this  opinion  concerning  the  Psychology, — that  the 
views  are  not  consistent  with  one  another, — has  been  made  widely  prevalent, 
and  is  repeated  by  critics  who  know  nothing  about  it  as  an  established 
truth,  it  seems  to  me  needful  that  I  should  do  this  ;  especially  as  I  fancy 
the  reputation  of  the  book  is  somewhat  damaged  by  this  kind  of  opinion  in 
the  Universities." 

The  execution  of  this  piece  of  work,  commenced  before  I 
left  town,  occupied  me  for  a  month  after  my  return;  and 
then  followed  a  short  supplementary  holiday.  I  had  for 
several  years  made  it  a  practice  to  take  runs  down  to 
the  sea-side  (usually  Brighton)  when  the  state  of  my  work 
enabled  me  to  partly  occupy  the  time  in  revision.  So, 
taking  with  me  a  set  of  proofs  of  this  new  division  of  the 
Psychology,  and  visiting  the  Spottiswoodes  at  Coombe  Bank 
on  my  way,  I  passed  on  to  Minster,  Margate,  Westgate, 
Ramsgate,  Sandwich,  Deal,  and  Dover :  staying  a  few 
hours  at  some  of  these  places  and  a  few  days  at  others; 


^T.  61.]         POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  363 

and  returning  to  town    as    soon   as   I   had   finished   my 
proof-correcting. 

Still  another  backwater  npw  hindered  me.  Yarious 
criticisms,  some  from  undistinguished  persons  and  others 
from  men  of  mark,  had  been  made  upon  The  Data  of 
Ethics :  Prof.  Sidgwick  being,  I  remember,  one  among 
these  last.  A  new  edition  was  called  for;  and,  to  remove 
certain  of  the  misapprehensions  and  invalid  objections,  it 
seemed  worth  while  to  say  something.  The  result  was  that 
I  devoted  nearly  three  weeks  to  writing  an  appendix  to  the 
book.  Only  in  the  last  week  of  October  had  I  freed  myself 
from  these  various  entanglements,  and  was  able  to  resume 
the  writing  of  Political  Institutions,  which  thereafter  made 
some  progress. 

Two  months  later  came  one  of  those  events  which, 
as  the  years  roll  on,  happen  with  increasing  frequency,  and 
render  life  less  worth  living.  The  following  extract  from  a 
letter  to  Lott  tells  what  this  event  was  : — 
"  You  were  doubtless  saddened  by  the  sudden  death  of  George  Eliot.  I  had 
seen  her  on  the  very  afternoon  of  the  day  on  which  she  was  taken  ill — being 
impelled  to  go  in  response  to  a  note  I  had  received  the  preceding  day,  and 
by  the  consciousness  that  I  was  leaving  town  and  could  not  otherwise  expect 
to  see  her  for  three  weeks.  The  next  I  knew  was  the  announcement  of  her 
death  in  Thursday's  evening  paper,  which  reached  me  at  Hastings," 

Some  of  the  obituary  notices  contained  an  error  which 
had  been  long  current  without  making  its  appearance  in 
such  form  as  to  admit  of  rectification.  It  was  now  needful 
to  rectify  it,  and  I  published  the  following  letter  in  several 
of  the  daily  papers. 

"  Sib, — Though,  as  one  among  those  intimate  friends  most  shocked  by 
her  sudden  death,  I  would  willingly  keep  silence,  I  feel  that  I  cannot  allow 
to  pass  a  serious  error  contained  in  your  biographical  notice  of  George  Eliot. 
A  positive  form  is  there  given  to  the  belief  which  has  been  long  current,  that 
I  had  much  to  do  with  her  education.  There  is  not  the  slightest  foundation 
for  this  belief.  Our  friendship  did  not  commence  until  1851 — a  date  several 
years  later  than  the  publication  of  her  translation  of  Strauss,  and  when 
she  was  already  distinguished  by  that  breadth  of  culture  and  universality  of 
power  which  have  since  made  her  known  to  all  the  world. — Hbbbkkt  Spkncbe." 

Information    which   I    had,    I   suppose,    given    to    my 


364  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1881. 

American  friend  during  one  of  his  visits  here,  led  him  to 
publish  in  a  New  York  journal  a  letter  rectifying  kindred 
misconceptions  current  in  the  United  States.  This  is  what 
I  subsequently  "vrrote  to  him  on  the  matter : — 

"  Your  second  letter,  which  concerned  the  notice  of  "  George  Eliot," 
reachtd  me  while  away  in  Glouceatershire,  but  only  this  morning  did  I 
receive  a  copy  of  the  Sun,  containing  your  explanations. 
"  What  you  have  said  is  nearer  to  the  truth  than  the  current  statements 
are,  though  it  is  still,  I  think,  divergent,  as  representing  my  influence  as 
greater  than  I  think  it  was.  In  respect  to  the  fact  that  I,  in  early  days,  urged 
her  to  write  fiction,  you  are  doubtless  right ;  though  it  was  not  so  much  on 
the  ground  of  any  unfitness  for  philosophical  writing,  which  I  should  be  far 
from  alleging,  but  on  the  ground  that  I  thought  she  had  in  a  high  degree  aU 
the  faculties  needed  for  fiction.  That  she  resisted  this  suggestion  for  some 
years  is  also  true.  It  may  be,  and  probably  is,  as  you  say,  that  she  was  con- 
siderably influenced  all  along  by  my  books.  In  fact,  accepting  their  general 
views  as  she  did,  it  could  hardly  be  otherwise ;  and  it  may  be  that  the 
Principlet  of  Psychology  was  a  help  to  her  in  the  respect  of  her  analyses. 
But  it  never  occurred  to  me  to  consider  the  effect  so  great  as  you  suppose. 
Her  powers  in  respect  of  introspection  and  sympathetic  insight  into  others, 
were  naturally  extremely  great ;  and  I  think  her  achievements  in  the  way  of 
delineation  of  character  are  almost  wholly  due  to  spontaneous  intuition. 
"  In  respect  of  her  avowed  condition,  she  has  been  more  a  disciple  of 
Comte  than  of  mine ;  although  her  acceptance  of  Comte's  views  was  very 
much  qualified,  and,  indeed,  hardly  constituted  her  a  Comtiat  in  the  full  sense 
of  the  word.  StiU  she  had  strong  leanings  to  the  "  Religion  of  Humanity", 
and  that  always  remained  a  point  of  difference  between  us.  However, 
during  our  last  interview,  which  was  on  the  very  day  she  was  taken  ill, 
conversation  brought  out  evidence  that  she  was  veering  a  good  deal  away 
from  Comte,  and  recognized  the  fundamental  divergence  from  the  Comtist 
conception  of  society,  of  views  of  mine  which  she  accepted.  She  had  been 
re-reading,  with  Mr.  Cross,  the  Data  of  Ethict  and  the  Study  of  Sociology  (the 
last,  indeed,  for  the  third  time) ,  and  was  in  general  sympathy  with  their  views. 
So  that  the  influence  might  have  been  more  manifest  in  further  works  if  she 
had  lived  to  write  them  (she  had  sketched  out  another  novel  and  written  the 
first  chapter). 

"  However,  you  have  done  very  well  by  correcting  the  false  impressions 
that  have  been  so  widely  diffused.  Probably  you  have  already  seen  that  I 
immediately  myself  wrote  a  letter  to  the  papers  stating  that  there  was  no 
truth  in  the  notion  that  her  education  had  been  under  my  direction." 

To  exclude  a  mis-apprehension  likely  to  be  strengthened 
by  a  reference  made  above,  let  me  say  that  the  mention  of 
Comte  and  his  doctrines  had  resulted  during  a  conversation 


Mt.  61.]         POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  S65 

concerning  TheStudy  of  Sociology,  and  was  quite  incidental. 
Positivism  had  always  been  a  tacitly  tabooed  topic  between 
the  Leweses  and  myself — the  only  topic  on  which  we 
differed,  and  which  we  refrained  from  discussing. 

A  movement  was  commenced  to  obtain  for  George  Eliot 
a  place  in  Westminster  Abbey ;  but,  before  any  overt  steps 
were  taken,  it  was  concluded  that  undesirable  comments 
would  probably  be  made,  and  the  movement  was  abandoned. 
She  was  buried  in  the  Highgate  Cemetery ;  and,  though  the 
day  was  continuously  rainy,  the  funeral  was  attended  by  a 
very  large  concourse,  including  many  distinguished  men. 

The  mention  above  of  The  Study  of  Sociology,  and  the 
consciousness  that  the  writing  of  Political  Institutions 
occupied  me  during  the  period  covered  by  this  chapter, 
suggest  the  propriety  of  here  saying  something  about  my 
political  opinions  at  the  age  of  60,  considered  in  contrast 
with  those  I  held  in  early  days.  Have  my  ideas  been 
modified  by  the  conservatism  of  advancing  years,  or  by  the 
wider  knowledge  acquired  ?  or  have  both  operated  in 
causing  the  change  from  a  sanguine  view  to  a  desponding 
view  ?  I  have  sometimes  startled  friends  by  saying  that  I 
am  more  tory  than  any  tory,  and  more  radical  than  any 
radical ;  and  the  still-continued  truth  of  this  paradox  shows 
that,  while  I  have  not  relinquished  my  ideal  of  the  future,  I 
have  come  to  see  that  its  realization  is  far  more  remote  than 
I  had  supposed.  The  indignation  against  wrong,  the  hope- 
fulness of  youth,  and  the  lack  of  experience,  had  joined  in 
me,  as  they  do  in  many,  to  produce  eagerness  for  political 
re-organization,  and  the  belief  that  it  needed  only  to 
establish  a  form  of  government  theoretically  more  equitable, 
to  remedy  the  evils  under  which  society  suffered.  Hence 
my  juvenile  radicalism. 

It  is  true,  as  shown  in  Social  Statics,  that  by  the  time  I 
was  thirty  the  crude  notions  of  five-and-twenty  had  been 
considerably  qualified.     I  had  come  to  see  that  institutions 


366  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1881. 

are  dependent  on  character;  and,  however  changed  in  their 
superficial  aspects,  cannot  be  changed  in  their  essential 
natures  faster  than  character  changes.  It  had  become 
manifest  to  me  that  men  are  rational  beings  in  but  a  very 
limited  sense;  that  conduct  results  from  desire,  to  the 
gratification  of  which  reason  serves  but  as  a  guide;  and 
that  hence  political  action  will  on  the  average  be  determined 
by  the  balance  of  desires,  wherever  this  can  show  itself.  It 
is  also  true,  as  shown  in  the  essay  on  ''Reform  :  the  Dangers 
and  the  Safeguards",  that  ten  years  later  I  saw  that 
mischiefs  would  result  from  the  giving  of  votes,  unless  the 
costs  of  political  action,  general  and  local,  were  made  to 
fall  directly  and  unmistakeably  on  all  individuals  who  had 
them ;  and  that  political  power  can  be  safely  extended  only 
as  fast  as  governmental  functions  are  restricted. 

Bat  I  myself  illustrated  the  truth  that  feeling  rather  than 
intellect  guides ;  for,  apparently  forgetting  these  conclusions, 
I  approved  that  wide  extension  of  the  franchise  effected  by 
the  Reform  Bill  of  1867.  The  sentiment  of  early  years,  so 
strongly  enlisted  on  behalf  of  the  seemingly-just  principle 
of  giving  equal  political  powers  to  all  men,  proved  too 
strong  for  the  restraints  of  my  calmer  judgments.  And 
then,  beyond  those  recognized  truths  which  feeling  led  me 
to  ignore,  there  were  other  truths  unrecognized  which  I 
ought  not  to  have  overlooked,  and  from  the  recognition  of 
which  further  deterrents  should  have  arisen. 

I  might  have  inferred  a  priori,  that  which  has  now 
become  clear  a  posteriori,  that  the  change  would  result  in 
replacing  the  old  class-legislation  by  a  new  class-legislation. 
It  is  certain  that,  given  the  average  human  nature  now 
existing,  those  who  have  power  will  pursue,  indirectly  if 
not  directly,  obscurely  if  not  clearly,  their  own  interests,  or 
rather  their  apparent  interests.  We  have  no  reason  for 
supposing  that  the  lower  classes  are  intrinsically  better 
than  the  higher  classes.  Hence  if,  while  the  last  were 
predominant,  they  made  laws  which  in  one  way  or  other 


Mt.  61.]         POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  367 

favoured  themselves,  it  follows  that  now,  when  the  first  are 
predominant,  they  also  will  give  legislation  a  bias  to  their 
own  advantage.  Manifest  as  it  always  was,  it  has  now 
become  more  manifest  still,  that,  so  long  as  governmental 
action  is  unrestricted,  the  thing  required  is  a  representation 
of  interests;  and  that  a  system  under  which  one  interest  is 
overwhelmingly  represented  (whether  it  be  that  of  a  smaller 
or  of  a  larger  section  of  the  community)  will  issue  in  one- 
sided laws.  We  shall  presently  see  the  injustices  once 
inflicted  by  the  employing  classes  paralleled  by  the 
injustices  inflicted  by  the  employed  classes.  During  a  long 
past  the  superior  have  inequitably  profited  at  the  cost  of 
the  inferior;  and  now  one  of  those  rhythms  displayed  in 
movements  of  every  order,  is  bringing  about  a  state  in 
which  the  inferior  will  inequitably  profit  at  the  cost  of 
the  superior. 

There  was  another  overlooked  truth  which  has  lately 
become  conspicuous  enough.  Often  I  have  reproached 
politicians  with  contemplating  only  the  proximate  results 
of  legislation  and  not  seeing  the  remote  results ;  and  I  find 
I  have  to  reproach  myself  with  a  kindred  blindness.  I 
did  not  in  early  days  perceive  that  one  organic  change 
tends  ever  to  initiate  another,  and  this  another,  occasionally 
bringing  about  a  perpetual  moulding  and  re-moulding  of 
institutions,  and  a  too-plastic  state  of  society ;  until  there 
eventually  arrives  something  approaching  to  political  dis- 
organization. 

But,  as  above  said,  while  character  remains  unchanged, 
change  of  institutions,  however  great  superficially,  cannot 
be  fundamentally  great ;  and  while  there  is  going  on  dis- 
organization of  one  kind,  there  goes  on  re-organization  of 
another  kind — while  the  old  coercive  arrangements  are 
being  relaxed,  new  coercive  arrangements  are  being 
unobtrusively  established.  For  the  concomitant  of  that 
legislation  which  more  and  more  advantages  the  employed 
classes    at    the  expense  of   the  employing   classes,  is  the 


368  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1881. 

growth  of  an  administrative  system  becoming  ever  more 
powerful  and  peremptory — a  new  governing  agency  which 
the  emancipated  people  are  unawares  elaborating  for  them- 
selves, whUe  thinking  only  of  gaining  the  promised  benefits. 
Unceasing  development  of  this,  daily  more  rapid,  has  now 
become  inevitable,  for  the  reason  that  both  electors  and 
their  representatives  invoke  with  increasing  urgency  public 
help,  public  expenditure,  and  public  regulation,  which  all 
imply  a  continually  augmenting  army  of  officials — an  army 
which,  by  the  restrictions  and  dictations  its  members 
enforce,  gradually  decreases  the  freedom  of  citizens,  at  the 
same  time  that  it  further  decreases  this  freedom  by 
demanding  that  more  and  more  of  their  labour  shall  be 
devoted  to  maintaining  it  and  paying  for  the  work  it 
superintends.  The  insidious  growth  of  this  organized  and 
consolidated  bureaucracy  will  go  on,  because  the  electorate 
cannot  conceive  the  general  but  distant  evils  it  must  entail, 
in  contrast  with  the  special  and  immediate  advantages  to 
be  gained  by  its  action.  For  the  masses  can  appreciate 
nothing  but  material  boons — ^better  homes,  shorter  hours, 
higher  wages,  more  regular  work.  Hence  they  are  in 
favour  of  those  who  vote  for  restricting  time  in  mines,  for 
forcing  employers  to  contribute  to  men's  insurance  funds, 
for  dictating  railway-fares  and  freights,  for  abolishing  the 
so-called  sweating  system.  It  seems  to  them  quite  right 
that  education,  wholly  paid  for  by  rates,  should  be  State- 
regulated  ;  that  the  State  should  give  technical  instruction  ; 
that  quarries  should  be  inspected  and  regulated ;  that  there 
should  be  sanitary  registration  of  hotels.  The  powers 
which  local  governments  now  have  to  supply  gas,  water, 
and  electric  light,  they  think  may  fitly  be  extended  to 
making  tramways,  buying  and  working  adjacent  canals, 
building  houses  for  artizans  and  labourers,  lending  money 
for  the  purchase  of  freeholds,  and  otherwise  adding  to 
conveniences  and  giving  employment.  While  all  this 
implies  a  wide-spread  officialism,  ever  growing  in  power. 


Mt.  61.]         POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  369 

it  implies  augmented  burdens  upon  all  who  have  means : 
constituting  an  indirect  re-distribution  of  property.  There 
is,  in  fact,  already  in  force  the  policy  which  Mr.  Henry 
G-eorge  advocates,  when  he  says  we  must  not  turn  out  the 
landlords  but  "  tax  them  out  ". 

On  recognizing  the  universality  of  rhythm,  it  becomes 
clear  that  it  was  absurd-to  suppose  that  the  great  relaxation  of 
restraints — political,  social,  commercial — which  culminated 
in  free-trade,  would  continue.  A  re-imposition  of  restraints, 
if  not  of  the  same  kind  then  of  other  kinds,  was  inevitable; 
and  it  is  now  manifest  that  whereas  during  a  long  period 
there  had  been  an  advance  from  involuntary  co-operation 
in  social  affairs  to  voluntary  co-operation  (or,  to  use  Sir 
Henry  Maine's  language,  from  status  to  contract),  there 
has  now  commenced  a  reversal  of  the  process.  Contract 
is  in  all  directions  being  weakened  and  broken;  and  we 
are  on  the  way  back  to  that  involuntary  co-operation,  or 
system  of  status,  consequent  on  the  immense  development 
of  public  administrations  and  the  corresponding  subordina- 
tion of  citizens — a  system  of  industries  carried  on  under 
universal  State-regulation — a  new  tyranny  eventually 
leading  to  new  resistances  and  emancipations. 

There  may  be  factors  which  I  have  overlooked.  Co- 
operation, for  example,  were  it  successful,  might  do  much 
towards  checking  this  transformation.  But  so  long  as 
co-operation  succeeds  only  in  distribution  and  fails  in 
production,  not  much  is  to  be  hoped  from  it.  Human 
nature  must  be  much  better  than  it  at  present  is  before  a 
much  higher  civilization  can  be  established.  Though  I 
believe  that,  in  the  words  of  the  song,  ^Hhere's  a  good 
time  coming",  it  now  seems  to  me  that  the  "good  time" 
is  very  far  distant. 

Beyond  the  usual  routine  entries,  varied  by  mention  of  a 
visit  to  Standish  at  Easter,  my  diary  tells  me  nothing 
of  note  concerning  the   season  of    1881.      The   following 

24 


370  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1881. 

extracts  from  letters^  however,  seem  worth  reproducing 

The  first  is  dated  Feb.  14:— 

"  I  had  from  Alglave  the  other  day  a  pleasant  piece  of  intelligence  which 
you  will  be  glad  to  learn.  The  French  Government  have  bought  100  copies 
of  the  translation  of  The  Data  of  Ethics  for  the  public  libraries  in  France.  " 

The  next  is  dated  May  7  : — 

"  I  inclose  a  letter  from  Morley  in  which,  as  you  see,  he  proposes  to  end  the 
series  with  the  forthcoming  chapter  on  "  Compound  Political  Heads". 

The  succeeding  chapters  were,  however,  published  in 
America.  The  next  passage  which  may  fitly  be  quoted 
bears  the  date  June  13  : — 

"  I  am  glad  to  see  that  you  take  the  same  view  as  I  do  with  respect  to  the 
supreme  importance  of  the  political  theory,  especially  for  you  in  the  U.S. 
I  do  not  believe  that  a  true  theory  will  do  much  good ;  but  we  may  at  any 
rate  say,  contrariwise,  that  an  untrue  one  does  a  great  deal  of  harm  ;  and  at 
present  much  mischief  is  going  on  among  you  as  a  result  of  untrue  theories." 

Utterly  irrelevant  though  it  is  in  subject,  I  am  prompted 

to  add  here  a  passage  written  during  this  spring  to  my 

friend  Lott : — 

'•  As  yon  say  you  have  thoughts  of  coming  to  hear  Berlioz's  Faust,  I  would 
suggest  that  a  much  better  thing  in  that  way  would  be  to  hear  his  Romeo  and 
Juliet,  which  I  am  glad  to  say  is  to  be  repeated  on  April  7th.  This  is,  I  am 
now  certain,  the  piece  a  part  of  which  so  delighted  me  when  I  heard  it 
thirty  years  ago,  and  the  non-recognition  of  which  by  the  critical  world  so 
exasperated  me.  I  have  been  since  that  time  aware  that  it  was  a  part  of 
Faust  or  a  part  of  Romeo  and  Juliet ;  and  now,  having  recently  heard  Faust, 
^^lliehdid  not  reach  my  expectations,  I  am  clear  it  was  a  part  of  Romeo 
and  Juliet." 

I  must  have  been  mistaken,  however ;  for  I  did  not  find  in 
Romeo  and  Juliet  anything  which  gave  me  such  extreme 
pleasure  as  did  some  music  of  Berlioz  played  during  the 
first  season  of  the  New  Philharmonic  Concerts,  which  he 
then  conducted.  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover  what 
music  it  was. 

An  occurrence  too  amusing  to  go  unrecorded,  requires 
the  introduction  that  this  autumn  I  decided  to  visit  the 
Eastern  side  of  the  Grampians,  which  I  had  never  seen. 


^T.  61.]  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS  371 

One  of  the  results  is  given  in  the  following  passage  from  a 
letter  to  my  American  friend  : — 

"I  may  end  with  something  to  make  you  laugh.  A  story  is  in  circulation, 
which  originally  made  its  appearance  in  one  of  our  personal  journals,  The 
World,  that  a  place  which  I  visited  during  my  absence  has  been  exorcised,  in 
consequence  of  my  presence.  It  was  at  Braemar,  where,  as  the  paragraph 
states  (rightly),  I  had  been  staying  some  days,  and  where  a  Free  Church 
clergyman  saw  my  name  in  the  visitors'  book.  "  He  was  seen  to  shudder, 
and,  being  asked  what  was  the  matter,  in  tremulous  accents  said  that  Anti- 
Christ  was  living  under  the  same  roof,  and  straightway  convened  a  prayer- 
meeting  in  the  billiard  room  as  a  fumigatory  measure." 

Knowing  the  worth  of  newspaper  statements,  I  gave  but 
little  heed  to  this  story  until  I  obtained  a  verification.  But 
from  a  fellow-member  of  the  Athenaeum,  who  was  in  the 
hotel  after  my  departure,  and  also  from  another  acquain- 
tance, I  learnt  that  something  of  the  kind  took  place. 

A  letter  written  soon  after  from  Ardtornish,  or  rather 
from  its  neighbourhood,  contains  a  quotable  paragraph.  It 
is  dated  "  SS.  Yacht  Dobhran,  in  the  Sleat  Sound," 
12th  August: — 

"  As  you  see,  I  write  this  while  out  yachting  on  the  west  coast  of  Scotland, 
in  a  steam-yacht  belonging  to  my  friends  at  Ardtornish.  I  have  brought  with 
me,  for  final  revision,  the  last  of  the  chapters  intended  for  serial  publication, 
["The  Industrial  Type"],  and  shall  post  it  to  you  from  some  place 
we  touch  at. 

"  It  is  terribly  long,  and  I  fear  may  entail  on  you  some  inconvenience.  But 
it  could  not  with  justice  to  the  subject-matter  be  made  shorter ;  and  the 
matter  is  of  cardinal  importance — indeed  it  is  the  culminating  chapter  of 
the  work — and,  indeed,  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy,  in  so  far  as  practical 
applications  are  concerned.  It  has  worked  out  quite  to  my  satisfaction. 
You  will  be  glad  to  Bee  how  entire  is  the  harmony  between  the  concrete 
argument,  as  here  set  forth,  and  the  abstract  argument  contained  in  The 
Data  of  Ethics. " 

The  fiftieth  meeting  of  the  British  Association  was  held 
at  York  this  year.  Sir  John  Lubbock,  one  of  our  X  club, 
was  President;  and  this  fact  furnished  one  of  the  motives 
which  prompted  my  departure  for  York  after  three  weeks 
at  Ardtornish.  A  letter  to  Lott,  written  after  my  return  to 
town,  gives  some  particulars  concerning  my  stay  there  : — 

"  You  complained  in  your  last  that  I  had  not  given  you  any  account  of  my 
own  previous  doings.     Well,  to  exclude  any  such  complaint  in  your  next 

24* 


372  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1882. 

letter,  I  will  just  indicate  my  movements  since  I  wrote  to  you  from 
Ardtornish.  Valentine  Smith  took  me  in  the  Dobhran  to  Stranraer  on  my 
way  to  York  [he  being  on  his  way  to  London],  and  in  the  course  of  our 
day's  voyage  we  touched  at  Jura  and  called  on  Henry  Evans  to  see  his  place. 
It  is  recently  built  and  a  very  comfortable  one.  At  York  I  had  pleasant 
days :  my  stay  at  Escrick  being  especially  enjoyable.  The  circle  was  a 
varied  one,  and  everything  was  made  more  agreeable  by  our  very  charming 
hostess,  Lady  Wenlock,  who  is  one  of  the  most  attractive  women  I  know. 
At  Fryston,  where  I  afterwards  spent  some  four  days,  among  the  guests  were 
Lady  Burdett-Coutts  and  her  husband.  She  is  amiable  and  unassuming. 
"  From  Fryston  I  went  to  Kusland,  and  had  a  quiet  ten  days  before  coming 
South,  where  I  have  now  been  for  nearly  a  month.  On  the  whole  I  had  a  very 
enjoyable  hoUday,  and  have  come  back  all  the  better  for  it :  being,  in  fact,  in 
very  fair  condition." 

And  so  ends  the  last  narrative  of  my  vacation  doings 

with  which  the  reader  need  be  troubled. 

The  remainder  of  '81  and  early  part  of  '82,  yielded  but 
one  incident  of  moment ;  and  this  proved  to  be  of  so  much 
moment — to  me,  at  least — that  I  have  reserved  it  for 
separate  narration  in  the  next  chapter.  Too  great  an 
amount  of  walking,  entailed  by  an  expedition  into  South 
Wales  during  my  stay  at  Standish  at  Christmas,  con- 
siderably weakened  me,  and,  as  I  see  by  entries  in  my 
diary  after  my  return  to  town,  prepared  the  way  for  the 
mischief  which  I  brought  on  myself  in  February. 

The  only  noteworthy  occurrence  which  the  beginning  of 
1882  brought,  is  described  in  the  following  passage  from  a 
letter  dated  Feb.  14  : — 

' '  This  morning  is  marked  by  a  somewhat  unusual  incident.  I  received 
from  America,  from  a  naturalized  German  named  Hegeler,  one  of  the  firm  of 
Matthieson  and  Hegeler,  Zinc  Manufacturers  of  La  SaUe,  Illinois,  a  long 
letter  inclosing  me  a  bill  of  exchange  for  two  hundred  and  odd  pounds.  He 
explained  that  his  immediate  reason  for  sending  it  was  that  be  had  read  in 
the  Chicago  Daily  News,  that  I  am  "  not  in  easy  financial  circumstances  "  : 
a  statement  which,  I  presume,  has  taken  its  origin  in  the  announcement  of 
my  loss  on  the  Descriptive  Sociology.  I  am,  by  this  same  post,  returning  the 
bill  of  exchange  to  Mr.  Hegeler,  with  due  recognition  of  his  generosity,  but 
with  the  explanation  that  there  exists  no  such  need  as  that  which  he 
supposes.  He  seems,  by  his  account  of  himself,  to  have  been  active  in  the 
endeavour  to  propagate  advanced  ideas." 

Mr.  Hegeler's  activity  in  the  direction  named  was  shown 


^T.  61.]         POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  373 

some  four  years  later  by  founding  and  supporting  The  Open 
Court — a  weekly  paper  having  for  its  object  the  reconcilia- 
tion of  Eeligion  and  Science  on  the  basis  of  Monism. 

The  last  chapter  of  Political  Institutions,  commenced  on 
Feb.  13,  was  not  completed  till  the  24th  of  March — a  delay 
consequent  on  the  disturbance  of  health  caused  in  a  way 
to  be  presently  described.  Early  in  April  the  volume  was 
delivered  over  to  the  attention  or  inattention — chiefly 
inattention — of  the  reviewers. 

I  am  not  sure  whether  I  entertained  some  hope  that  the 
general  doctrine  set  forth  would  receive  consideration : 
probably  not  much  if  any.  But  if  I  entertained  any  I  was 
disappointed.  Though  this  doctrine,  being  a  part  of  the 
general  Theory  of  Evolution,  might  not  unnaturally  be 
regarded  as  having  an  a  j^'t'iori  character,  yet,  since  it  is 
throughout  ostensibly  based  on,  and  justified  by,  multi- 
tudinous facts,  it  has  an  inductive  warrant  which  might 
have  commended  it  even  to  those  whose  reasonings  are 
limited  to  inferences  from  blue  books  and  newspaper 
statistics.  But  conclusions  to  which  men  are  averse 
cannot  be  made  acceptable  to  them  by  facts  any  more  than 
by  arguments ;  and  Englishmen  are  averse  to  conclusions 
of  wide  generality.  Not  only  out  of  parliament,  among 
the  ignorant,  but  in  parliament,  among  those  supposed  to 
be  enlightened,  such  a  question  as  whether  there  are  or  are 
not  any  limits  to  the  functions  of  government  is  pooh- 
poohed  as  an  abstract  question  not  worth  discussing. 
"  Practical "  wisdom  is  supposed  to  lie  in  the  assumption 
that  an  Act  of  Parliament  can  do  anything,  and  that  it  is 
foolish  to  waste  time  in  considering  whether  there  are  any 
principles  of  social  life  which  justify  one  kind  of  legislation 
and  negative  another.  Perhaps  it  will  some  day  be  seen — 
possibly  by  some  it  is  seen  now — that  the  question  of  the 
proper  sphere  of  government  is  the  most  "  practical "  of 
all  questions ;  and  that  the  fostering  of  false  ideas  con- 


374  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  [1882. 

cerning  the  things  to  be  asked  for  and  expected  from  the 
State,  IS  fast  leading  to  a  social  revolution  which  threatens 
to  end  in  re-barbarization. 

If  I  did  look  for  some  acceptance  of  the  leading  ideas 
set  forth  in  this  volume,  it  was  from  the  men  of  science  that 
I  looked  for  it.  These  general  facts, — that  in  the  course 
of  animal  evolution  there  arises  a  strong  contrast  between 
the  method  of  co-operation  among  those  organs  which 
carry  on  the  vital  actions,  and  the  method  of  co-operation 
among  those  organs  which  carry  on  dealings  with  the 
environment ;  and  that  there  arises  in  the  course  of  social 
evolution  a  kindred  contrast  between  the  mode  of  co-opera- 
tion among  the  industrial  structures  which  sustain  social 
life,  and  the  structures  which  perform  actions  of  offence 
and  defence  against  other  societies  (which  form  the  social 
environment), — might,  I  thought,  be  recognized  by  the 
scientifically  cultured,  and  their  significance  perceived. 
That  there  results  the  industrial  type  or  the  militant  type 
according  as  one  or  other  set  of  organs  and  mode  of 
co-operation  predominates ;  and  that  the  phenomena  of 
activity,  structure,  government,  with  the  corresponding 
beliefs  and  sentiments,  are  determined  by  the  relative 
predominance ;  proved  to  be  conceptions  no  more 
appreciated  by  those  who  are  in  the  habit  of  studying 
natural  causation,  than  by  those  to  whom  natural  causation 
is  an  unfamiliar  thought. 

Beliefs,  like  creatures,  must  have  fit  environments  be- 
fore they  can  live  and  grow ;  and  the  environment 
furnished  by  the  ideas  and  sentiments  now  current,  is 
an  entirely  unfit  environment  for  the  beliefs  which  the 
volume  sets  forth. 


CHAPTER  LX. 
A  GEIEVOUS  MISTAKE. 

1881—82.     ^T.  61. 

When  sometliing  like  half  the  period  covered  by  the  last 
chapter  had  elapsed^  there  occurred  an  incident  which  led 
to  the  greatest  disaster  of  my  life — a  disaster  that  resulted 
from  doing  more  than  I  ought  to  have  done. 

During  many  years  the  materials  for  the  Principles 
of  Sociology  in  course  of  accumulation,  had  from  time  to 
time  shown  me  the  relation  which  exists  between  militancy 
and  a  social  organization  despotic  in  form  and  barbaric 
in  ideas  and  sentiments;  while  they  had  simultaneously 
shown  me  the  relation  which  exists  between  industrialism 
and  a  freer  form  of  government,  accompanied  by  feelings 
and  beliefs  of  just  and  humane  kinds,  conducive  in  a 
higher  degree  to  happiness.  Near  the  end  of  Chapter 
LVT.  a  passage  I  have  quoted  from  a  letter  shows 
that  in  1879  I  had  spoken  to  friends  concerning  the 
possibility  of  doing  something  towards  checking  the 
aggressive  tendencies  displayed  by  us  all  over  the  world — • 
sending,  as  pioneers,  missionaries  of  "  the  religion  of  love," 
and  then  picking  quarrels  with  native  races  and  taking 
possession  of  their  lands.  Sympathetic  though  our  con- 
versations were,  they  ended  without  result.  Sometime  near 
midsummer  1881,  however,  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison  re- 
minded me  of  these  conversations,  and  asked  me  whether 
I  had  thought  anything  more  about  the  matter.  While 
writing  Political  Institutions,  I  had  become  still  more  pro- 


376  A  GRIEVOUS  MISTAKE.  [1881. 

foundly  impressed  witli  tlie  belief  that  the  possibility  of  a 
higher  civilization  depends  wholly  on  the  cessation  of 
militancy  and  the  growth  of  industrialism.  Hence  I 
responded  eagerly;  and  the  result  was  a  renewal  of  the 
consultations  which  had  been  dropped.  Mr.  John  Morley 
joined  in  them,  Mr.  Dillwyn,  M.P,,  Professor  Leone  Levi, 
the  Rev.  Llewelyn  Davies,  Canon  Fremantle,  Mr.  Chesson, 
Col.  Osborne,  and  others.  By  request  I  drew  up  an 
address  setting  forth  our  aims :  its  general  idea  being 
that  while  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance^  on  which  the 
Peace  Society  take  their  stand,  is  quite  untenable,  the 
doctrine  of  non-aggression  is  tenable.  In  July  sundry 
meetings  of  those  interested  were  held  at  the  house  of  Sir 
Arthur  (now  Lord)  Hobhouse ;  and  matters  were  put  in 
train  before  the  close  of  the  London  season. 

All  this  was  in  direct  contravention  of  a  rule  I  had  laid 
down  for  myself.  As  shown  by  the  circular  quoted  in  a 
preceding  chapter,  I  had,  years  before,  decided  to  decline 
joining  in  public  movements ;  and  I  had,  up  to  this  date, 
persevered  in  my  refusal  to  give  anything  more  than  name 
and  money  in  furtherance  of  ends  of  which  I  approved. 
But  now  my  interest  was  such  that  I  unhappily  forgot,  or 
disregarded,  the  prudential  considerations  which  had,  on 
all  previous  occasions,  restrained  me.  Not,  indeed,  that  I 
intended  to  take  continuously  an  active  part.  It  was 
obvious  that  there  existed  a  large  amount  of  anti-war 
feeling,  especially  among  the  artisan-class  and  the  great 
body  of  dissenters ;  and  the  belief  was  that  if  this  feeling 
were  provided  with  some  means  of  expressing  itself,  there 
would  result  a  self-sustaining  movement.  I  thought  it 
would  be  practicable  to  join  in  the  effort  to  initiate  such  a 
movement,  and  then  leave  others  to  carry  it  on.  Had  not 
my  wishes  so  possessed  me  as  to  exclude  ideas  of  possible 
consequences,  I  should  have  seen  that  I  might  not  improbably 
be  led,  in  spite  of  myself,  to  do  more  than  I  intended. 

In   the   autumn  our  meetings  were  resumed;    arrange- 


JEt.  61.]  A  GEIEVOUS  MISTAKE.  377 

merits  were  gradually  matured ;  further  sympathizers 
gathered  together;  and  on  the  22  of  February  1882,  we  held 
a  public  meeting  at  the  Westminster  Palace  Hotel.  Being 
anxious  to  see  a  successful  start  made,  I  had  allowed  much 
work  to  devolve  upon  me  which  should  have  been  under- 
taken by  others.  I  agreed,  contrary  to  my  original 
intention,  to  take  part  in  the  meeting,  move  a  resolution 
and  make  a  speech.  With  my  narrow  margin  of  nervous 
power  it  was  an  absurd  thing  to  do ;  and  still  more  so  to 
persevere  when,  as  my  diary  shows,  I  was,  for  several  days 
before,  breaking  down.  But  I  had  put  my  hand  to  the 
plough  and  would  not  turn  back.  There  was  here  again 
illustrated  a  trait  on  which  I  have  before  commented — the 
liability  to  be  tyrannized  over  by  a  resolution  once  formed : 
consciousness  becoming  so  possessed  by  the  end  in  view 
that  all  thought  of  anything  adverse  is  excluded. 

Nothing  of  any  moment  came  of  our  action.  Some 
sympathy  was  expressed  by  newspapers  representing  the 
dissenters;  and  I  remember  one  of  them  said  it  was  a 
disgrace  to  their  body  that  such  a  movement  should  have 
been  initiated  by  rationalists.  Yet  neither  from  those  who 
are  stirred  chiefly  by  religious  motives,  nor  from  those  who 
are  stirred  chiefly  by  political  motives,  did  there  come  any 
support  worth  naming.  Though  year  by  year  filibustering 
colonists  and  ambitious  officials,  civil  and  military,  were 
everywhere  laying  hands  on  the  territories  of  neighbour- 
ing weaker  races  ('annexing'  the  wise  call  it) — though 
consequent  chronic  hostilities,  and  multiplying  salaries  to 
new  governors  and  their  staffs,  were  continually  swelling 
the  national  expenditure;  yet  the  elector  at  home,  pre- 
occupied by  disputes  about  local  option,  hours  of  closing 
public-houses,  employers'  liabilities,  preferential  railway 
rates,  and  countless  small  questions,  would  give  no  attention 
to  the  fact  that  his  burdens  are  being  perpetually  made 
heavier,  and  his  risks  more  numerous,  without  his  assent  or 
even  his  knowledge.     And  while  the  average  tax-payer, 


378  A  GRIEVOUS  MISTAKE.  [1882. 

bourgeois  and  artisan,  thinking  only  of  small  proximate 
evils,  remained  indifferent  to  this  great  but  remote  evil,  the 
organs  of  the  upper  classes,  ever  favouring  a  policy  which 
calls  for  increase  of  armaments  and  multiplication  of  places 
for  younger  sons,  ridiculed  the  supposition  that  it  was 
practicable  or  desirable  to  restrain  those  colonial  authorities 
who  yearly  commit  us  unawares  to  expensive  wars  and 
additional  responsibilities. 

It  was,  indeed,  a  foolish  hope  that  any  appreciable  effect 
could  be  produced  under  conditions  then  existing,  and  with 
an  average  national  character  like  that  displayed.  While 
continental  nations  were  bristling  with  arms,  and  our  own  was 
obliged  to  increase  its  defensive  forces  and  simultaneously 
foster  militant  sentiments  and  ideas,  it  was  out  of  the 
question  that  an  "Anti- Aggression  League"  could  have  any 
success.  While  promotion  was  accorded,  and  titles  were 
given,  to  those  who,  in  our  dependencies,  forestalled  supposed 
hostile  intentions  of  neighbouring  tribes  by  commencing 
hostilities — while  the  tens  of  thousands  of  appointed 
teachers  of  forgiveness  of  injuries,  uttered  no  denunciations 
of  the  implied  maxim — "Injure  others  before  they  injure 
you " ;  it  was  absurd  to  expect  that  any  considerable 
number  would  listen  to  the  principle  enunciated,  that 
aggression  should  be  suffered  before  counter-aggression  is 
entered  upon.  With  a  parliament  and  people  who  quietly 
look  on,  or  even  applaud,  while,  on  flimsy  pretexts,  the  forces 
of  our  already  vast  Eastern  Empire  successfully  invade 
neighbouring  States,  and  then  vilify  as  "dacoits,"  i.e. 
brigands,  those  who  continue  to  resist  them,  the  expectation 
that  equitable  international  conduct  would  commend  itself 
was  irrational. 

But  while  no  good  came  of  our  movement,  great  evil 
came  to  me.  There  was  produced  a  mischief  which, 
in  a  gradually  increasing  degree,  undermined  life  and 
arrested  work. 

Beyond  dictating  the  last  pages  of  Political  Institutions, 


Mt.  62.]  A  GRIEVOUS  MISTAKE.  379 

nothing  was  done  during  the  Spring  :  recovery  of  health, 
not  then  supposed  to  be  seriously  deranged,  being  the  chief 
occupation.  There  were  visits  of  a  few  days  to  Brighton 
and  one  to  Hastings  (where  the  Busks  were  staying),  with 
consequent  improvements,  and  relapses  on  return  to  town 
and  resumption  of  daily  routine.  There  was  a  short 
sojourn  with  my  friend  Lott  at  Quorn  early  in  April,  and 
a  longer  one  towards  the  end  of  May,  during  which  he  and 
his  belongings  accompanied  me  on  a  three  days^  excursion 
to  Sherwood  Forest.  Stan  dish,  too,  was  visited  on  my  way 
back  to  town  ;  and  with  my  stay  there  this  time  is  associated 
the  remembrance  of  a  discussion  on  the  question  of  immor- 
tality :  the  occasion  for  it  being  the  recent  death  of  Mrs. 
Potter,  which  had  ended  a  friendship  of  nearly  forty  years 
standing.  As  may  be  supposed,  my  position  in  respect 
to  the  question  discussed  was  agnostic — the  position  that  on 
the  one  hand  there  is  no  evidence  supporting  the  belief  in 
immortality,  and  that  on  the  other  hand  there  is  no  evidence 
to  warrant  denial  of  it. 

Later  in  the  season  occurred  a  sequence  of  this  visit.  My 
friend  Potter  was  one  of  the  directors  of  the  Dutch  Rhenish 
Railway  Company;  and  there  had  long  been  entertained  the 
suggestion  that  I  should  some  day  accompany  him  on  one  of 
his  visits  to  Holland  to  attend  the  annual  meeting.  This 
year  the  suggestion  took  effect.  Going  a  few  days  in 
advance,  to  renew  my  recollections  of  Antwerp  and  to  give 
a  little  time  to  Ghent  and  Rotterdam,  I  joined  my  friend 
and  two  of  his  daughters  at  the  Hague.  Our  brief  stay 
there  was  followed  by  a  visit  to  Amsterdam,  where,  as  at 
the  Hague,  the  picture  galleries  were  seen,  and  where, 
of  course,  many  adverse  criticisms  were  passed  by  me. 
Two  works  only  I  remember — one  a  Burgomaster's  feast 
by  Van  der  Heist,  which,  unsatisfactory  as  a  whole  (the 
subject  being  unfitted  for  art),  is  admirable  in  many  of 
its  faces;  the  other,  Rembrandt's  celebrated  "Lesson  in 
Anatomy  "   at  the  Hague.     This  appeared  to  me  to  fail 


380  A  GRIEVOUS  MISTAKE.  [1882. 

utterly  in  the  essential  point  of  dramatic  truth.  Instead 
of  being  shown  as  occupied  in  observing  the  professor's 
proceedings,  or  listening  to  what  he  says,  or  else  in 
some  intelligible  bye-play,  the  students  are  shown  in 
meaningless  attitudes  and  with  vacant  expressions  of 
face,  in  no  way  relevant  to  the  occasion. 

After  a  day  at  Utrecht  (where  the  railway  meeting  was 
held),  a  short  sojourn  at  Cologne,  and  a  voyage  up  the 
Rhine  as  far  as  Coblenz,  my  friends  and  I  parted :  they 
continuing  their  journey  to  Switzerland,  and  I  turning  my 
face  homewards — ^taking  my  route  up  the  Moselle  to  Treves 
to  see  the  Roman  remains,  going  thence  to  Metz,  and  from 
there  via  Paris  to  London. 

No  permanent  benefit  resulted  from  this  any  more  than 
from  previous  relaxations.  There  had  commenced  a  series 
of  descents,  severally  caused  by  exceeding  my  diminished 
strength  and  making  it  still  less,  which  brought  me  down  in 
the  course  of  subsequent  years  to  the  condition  of  a  con- 
firmed invalid,  leading  little  more  than  a  vegetative  life. 

This  final  result  I  refer  to  here,  considerably  in  advance 
of  its  date,  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  pointing  a  moral. 
The  occasion  is  a  fit  one  for  criticizing  an  opinion  often 
professed  and  rarely  if  ever  called  in  question. 

We  are  told  that  the  pleasurable  feeling  caused  by  the 
doing  of  right  is  itself  a  sufficient  reward  for  the  right  done, 
and  a  sufficient  compensation  for  any  evil  which  doing 
right  entails.  Though  probably  many  are  conscious  that 
their  experiences  do  not  verify  this  belief,  yet  the  propriety 
of  maintaining  it,  as  well  as  all  beliefs  which  apparently 
conduce  to  good  conduct,  seems  so  obvious  that  they  keep 
silence.  The  tacit  assumption  made  by  writers  on  ethics, 
and  by  ordinary  people  who  moralize  on  the  affairs  of  life, 
is  that  only  vice  brings  ill-consequences,  while  virtue 
always  brings  good  consequences ;  and  this  creed  is  taught 
without  qualification,  though  facts  daily  prove  that  wrong- 


iET.  62]  A  GRIEVOUS  MISTAKE.  881 

doing  often  escapes  punishment,  alike  external  and  internal, 
(conscience  being  callous),  while  right-doing  often  brings 
heavy  penalties,  and  is  followed  by  no  such  moral  satisfac- 
tions as  appreciably  mitigate  the  pains  to  be  borne. 
Bodies  permanently  enfeebled  by  self-sacrifices  in  nursing, 
minds  injured  for  life  by  overwork  in  fulfilment  of  respon- 
sibilities, social  positions  damaged  by  the  conscientious 
acting-out  of  convictions,  are  constantly  thrust  on  the 
observation  of  all;  and  inquiries,  if  made,  would  prove 
that  the  supposed  mental  content  obtained  not  only  forms 
no  adequate  set  off  to  the  evils  suffered,  but  commonly 
forms  no  appreciable  element  in  consciousness. 

Certainly  this  expresses  my  own  experience ;  and  I  have 
no  reason  to  suppose  it  exceptional.  If  I  know  my  own 
motives,  the  actions  I  have  narrated  above  were  prompted 
exclusively  by  the  desire  to  further  human  welfare.  Indeed, 
I  do  not  see  how  any  other  construction  can  be  put  upon 
them.  It  is  obvious  that  I  had  nothing  to  gain  in  this 
world  by  the  implied  expenditure  of  time,  money,  and 
effort;  and  as  I  have  no  belief  in  anything  to  be  gained 
in  another  world,  it  cannot  be  that  other-worldliness 
moved  me.  But  right  though  I  thought  it,  my  course 
brought  severe  penalties  and  no  compensations  what- 
ever. I  am  not  thinking  only  of  the  weeks,  months, 
years,  of  wretched  nights  and  vacant  days;  though 
these  made  existence  a  long-drawn  weariness.  I  refer 
chiefly  to  the  gradual  arrest  and  final  cessation  of  my 
work;  and  the  consciousness  that  there  was  slipping  by 
that  closing  part  of  life  during  which  it  should  have  been 
completed.  For  had  I  not  been  thus  incapacitated,  the 
remaining  volumes  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy  might  by 
this  time  have  been  written  and  published.  What,  then,  is 
the  quality  of  the  consciousness  produced  in  me  by  looking 
back  on  this  most  disastrous  incident  in  my  career  ? 
Though  I  still  regard  with  approval  the  course  I  took, 
considered  intrinsically,  yet  contemplating  it,  even  when 


382  A  GRIEVOUS  MISTAKE.  [1882. 

separated  from  its  consequences,  does  not  produce  a  feeling 
appreciably  above  equanimity.  And  wben,  with  this  lack 
of  any  pleasurable  consciousness,  there  is  joined  the  painful 
consciousness  of  evils  entailed,  and  especially  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  great  aim  missed,  the  total  result  is  a 
feeling  the  reverse  of  pleasurable.  Habitually  shunning 
the  recollection,  I  shy  at  the  rising  idea  as  a  horse  shies 
at  an  alarming  object,  and  quickly  take  some  other  course 
of  thought.  In  this  case,  then,  the  accepted  dogma  is  in 
every  way  falsified. 

It  is  best  to  recognize  the  facts  as  they  are,  and  not 
try  to  prop  up  rectitude  by  fictions.  The  first  needful 
qualification  of  the  current  belief  is  that  the  good  results  of 
right  conduct  can  be  looked  for  only  in  the  majority  of 
cases,  and  not  in  each  particular  case.  And  the  second 
needful  qualification  is  that  it  is  not  the  absolutely  right 
conduct,  but  the  relatively  right  conduct,  from  which,  on  the 
average,  good  results  flow — the  conduct  which  is  duly 
adjusted  to  social  conditions. 


CHAPTER  LXL 
COMING  EVENTS. 

1881—82.    ^t.  61—62. 

A  LETTEE  quoted  in  the  last  chapter  but  one,  under  date 
13  June,  1881,  contained  an  unquoted  passage  which  I 
have  reserved  for  insertion  here,  as  being  relevant  to  the 
matters  contained  in  this  chapter.  It  runs  as  follows : — 
* '  After  my  experience  last  year  in  going  to  and  from  Alexandria,  on  each 
of  which  occasions  I  had  a  three  days  voyage,  my  fears  of  sea-travelling  in 
respect  of  entailed  sleeplessness  are  somewhat  diminished ;  and  I  have  of 
late  been  consequently  entertaining  the  thought  that  I  may  possibly  come 
over  to  see  you.    If  so,  it  will  be,  I  think,  in  the  latter  half  of  next  year." 

In  the  course  of  the  autumn  the  intention  thus  in- 
dicated gained  in  definiteness,  and  by  and  by  prompted 
preparations  ;  as  witness  the  following  extract  dated 
Jan.  10,  1882  :— 

'•I  spent  Christmas  week  with  the  Potters  in  Gloucestershire,  and  during 
my  stay  was  led  by  my  friend  Potter,  who  has  been  across  the  Atlantic 
some  dozen  times,  to  take  time  by  the  forelock  in  respect  of  a  good 
berth.  The  result  of  our  conversation  was  that  he  wrote  to  Cunard's,  and 
that  I  have  secured  a  desirable  room  in  the  "  Servia",  sailing  on  the  12th  of 
August.  Unless,  therefore,  the  time  of  sailing  should  be  altered  or  some 
disaster  should  happen  to  me,  I  suppose  I  shall  see  you  about  the  21st  or 
22nd  of  August.  " 

Soon  afterwards  a  further  arrangement  was  made.  On 
Feb.  16,  I  wrote  thus  : — 

"As  to  my  intentions  when  I  arrive  in  the  U.S.  they  are  at  present  not  Tery 
decided.  .  .  I  must  not  forget  one  piece  of  intelligence,  namely  that  my 
intimate  friend  Edward  Lott,  of  whom  you  have  heard  me  speak  (I  am  not 
quite  sure  whether  you  have  seen  him)  has  volunteered  to  accompany  me,  at 
any  rate  as  far  as  New  York.     This  will  be  a  great  addition  to  my  pleasure, 


384  COMING  EVENTS.  [1882. 

and  should  we  arrange  for  him  to  join  me  in  part  of  the  tour,  he  may  serve 
very  advantageously  as  a  buffer  :  you  may  depute  to  him  in  a  considerable 
measure  the  function  which  you  have  volunteered  to  undertake." 

I  suppose  it  was  his  constitutional  modesty  whicli  led 
my  old  friend  to  make  his  proposal  tentatively,  as  he  did ; 
but  the  hesitation  was  quite  uncalled  for.  He  might  have 
been  sure  that  after  a  friendship  commenced  more  than 
forty  years  before,  the  harmony  of  which  had  never  for  a 
moment  been  broken,  and  during  which  we  had  made 
together  so  many  excursions,  long  and  short,  his  companion- 
ship would  gratify  me  more  than  that  of  anyone  else. 

The  project  having  been  matured  thus  far,  various 
sequences  presently  came.  Here  is  one,  indicated  in  a 
letter  written  on  March  8,  1882 : — 

"  I  see  by  a  copy  of  the  Tribune  which  he  sent  me  two  days  ago,  that 
Smalley  has  telegraphed  particulars  concerning  my  visit.  Various  mis- 
statements of  course  are  becoming 'current.  It  is  reported  over  here  that  I 
am  in  financial  difficulties,  and  am  going  over  to  lecture,  with  a  view,  it  is 
implied,  of  recouping  myself!  You  may  judge,  if  you  do  not  otherwise  know, 
the  degree  of  likelihood  there  is  of  this,  from  the  fact  that  a  few  days  ago  I 
received  an  application  from  one  of  your  lecture-bureaux  offering  me  terms 
up  to  $250  per  lecture,  which  I  wrote  by  return  of  post  positively  declining, 
and  saying  that  no  terms  they  could  offer  would  tempt  me." 

A  passage  in  a  letter  dated  March  29,  refers  to  another 

sequence : — 

"  Your  suggestion  with  regard  to  attending  the  meeting  of  the  Association 
at  Montreal,  is  one  which  I,  of  course,  yield  to;  especially  with  the  view  of 
supporting  you  in  your  position  of  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Science 
Teaching,  and  especially  as  you  say  I  shall  be  free  to  leave  if  I  find  for  any 
reason  that  it  is  too  much  for  me. 

"I  have  been  considerably  knocked  up  by  the  worry  of  this  Anti-Aggression 
League  business,  which  has  chiefly  fallen  on  my  shoulders,  and  have  been  in 
great  fear  of  a  prolonged  breakdown.  However,  I  am  considerably  better  and 
hope  shortly  to  be  all  right  again." 

This  hope,  alas !  as  already  indicated  in  the  last  chapter, 
was  doomed  to  disappointment.  I  little  thought  then  that 
there  had  been  initiated  a  slow  and  long  descent  to  the 
invalid  life  of  later  years.  On  April  21  I  again  expressed 
myself  decidedly  with  respect  to  my  intentions. 

"I  have  already  given  in  the  Athenamm  an  authoritative  contradiction  to 


^T.  62.]  COMING  EVENTS.  385 

the  rumour  that  I  was  about  to  lecture  during  my  tour  in  America,  and  I  do 
not  propose  to  change  my  decision.  The  reply  I  gave  to  one  of  the  lecture 
bureaux  which  made  an  offer  to  me,  was  that  neither  the  offer  they  made, 
nor  any  other  offer,  would  induce  me.  I  must  still  make  the  same  answer. 
Even  the  offer  of  £300  for  me  to  lecture,  which  you  communicate,  fails  to 
alter  my  resolution.  Were  lecturing  my  habit,  as  in  the  case  of  Tyndall  and 
Huxley,  there  would  be  nothing  special  in  my  undertaking  to  give  lectures  or 
a  lecture ;  and  the  implication  would  be  different.  But  as  matters  stand,  the 
giving  a  lecture  or  reading  a  paper,  would  be  nothing  more  than  making 
myself  a  show ;  and  I  absolutely  decline  to  make  myself  a  show. 
' '  What  I  do  while  with  you  I  mean  to  make  entirely  subordinate  to  relaxa- 
tion and  amusement ;  and  I  shall  resist  positively  anything  which  in  any 
considerable  way  entails  on  me  responsibilities  or  considerable  excitements. 
I  suppose  you  have  long  ago  discovered  that  I  have  a  faculty  of  saying  No, 
and  that  when  I  say  No  I  mean  No." 

Referring  to  the  same  subject,  a  letter  of  June  21  says  : — 
"  With  respect  to  the  proposed  public  dinner,  I  must,  I  presume,  assent. 
To  decline  would  be  awkward  ;  and  as  I  propose  to  limit  myself  a  good  deal 
in  the  way  of  social  intercourse  and  receptions,  I  must,  I  conclude,  yield  to 
some  arrangement  which  shall  replace  more  detailed  entertainments." 

Would  that  my  boasted  ability  to  say  "  No "  had  been 
more  fully  justified !  Now,  when  I  look  back,  I  recognize 
sundry  occasions  on  which  failure  of  this  ability  entailed 
mischievous  results. 

The  ensuing  six  weeks  brought  no  incident  of  moment 
not  already  named.  Relaxations  and  excursions  which  I 
trusted  would  restore  my  lost  balance  failed  to  do  this.  A 
letter  of  July  21  says  : — 

•'  Though  better,  I  am  still  not  up  to  much  work.     I  am  looking  forward 
to  the  voyage  and  my  visit  with  you  to  raise  me  to  a  higher  level  of  vigour." 

The  hope  thus  implied  was  not  a  very  rational  one. 
Had  I  called  to  mind  past  results  of  the  wear  and  tear  of 
travel,  I  should  have  anticipated  mischief  rather  than 
benefit.  Even  had  I  been  up  to  my  ordinary  low  level 
of  health,  the  expedition  would  have  been  of  doubtful 
prudence,  and  in  my  then  debilitated  state  it  was  de- 
cidedly imprudent. 

But  here  was  another  case  in  which  a  plan  once  fixed 
upon  becomes  a  tyrant  over  me,  and  dictates  persistence 

25 


386  COMING  EVENTS.  [1882. 

regardless  of  consequences.  Under  the  circumstances 
whicli  had  arisen  I  ought  to  have  abandoned  the  projected 
voyage,  and  sacrificed  my  double  passage  money  (I  had 
taken  a  state-room  aU  to  myself,  not  daring  to  risk  the 
additional  hindrances  to  sleep  entailed  by  the  presence  of  a 
fellow-passenger) :  at  the  same  time  reimbursing  my  friend 
Lott  for  his  bootless  outlay.  But  such  a  course  did  not,  I 
believe,  even  occur  to  me,  and  I  unhesitatingly  occupied 
the  early  part  of  August  in  completing  my  preparations. 

On  the  10th  I  went  down  to  Liverpool  to  spend  a  day 
or  two  with  the  Holts,  who  had  kindly  proposed  that  I 
should  make  their  house  my  place  of  departure. 


CHAPTER  LXII. 
A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA. 

1882.     ^t.  62. 

Paraphrasing  a  familiar  remark,  one  may  say, — Happy 
are  the  voyagers  whose  narratives  are  dull.  Our's 
answered  to  this  description.  It  was  prosperous,  and 
without  noteworthy  incident.  Of  entries  in  my  diary,  one 
made  on  the  16th,  after  only  four  days  at  sea,  shows  my 
constitutional  impatience — "  Getting  very  much  bored." 
On  the  19th  there  is  the  entry — "  Magnificent  sunset  j  the 
finest  in  color  I  ever  saw".  And  a  wretched  night,  noted 
on  the  18th,  was  accompanied  by  the  remark — "  Terrific 
disturbance  from  fog-whistle.'* 

This  last  entry  reminds  me  of  an  error  I  had  made.  It 
will  scarcely  be  said  of  me  that  I  usually  accept  current 
statements  without  sufficient  criticism;  but  even  I  am  not 
infrequently  misled  by  too  readily  giving  credence.  It  is 
commonly  alleged  that  a  berth  amid-ships  is  the  best,  because 
the  motion  from  pitching  is  there  the  smallest;  and  the 
berth  which  I  took  in  the  "  Servia  "  was  in  this  position. 
I  quite  forgot  that,  as  I  am  a  good  sailor  (I  had  not  a  qualm 
either  going  or  returning),  avoidance  of  much  motion  was 
of  secondary  moment,  and  that  for  me  a  state-room  in  the 
bow,  where  the  noises  are  least,  was  the  most  desirable. 
The  result  of  the  mistake  was  that  not  only  by  the  shrieks 
of  the  fog-whistle,  which  was  just  over  my  head,  but  by 

25* 


388  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  [1882. 

other  loud  sounds^  my  ordinarily  bad  sleep  was  made  more 
broken  than  ever. 

A  climax  was  put  to  the  mischief  on  the  last  night.  We 
arrived  too  late  to  reach  the  wharf,  and  had  to  lie  off 
Staten  Island.  Here  the  raising  of  the  baggage  and  cargo, 
in  preparation  for  landing  in  the  morning,  gave  me,  as 
my  diary  says,  "  a  horrible  night  from  noises  ;"  so  that, 
when  my  friend  Youmans  came  on  board  at  7  on  the 
morning  of  the  21st  to  welcome  me,  he  found  me  in  an 
unusually  dilapidated  state. 

"  I  had  to  remind  myself  when  entering  a  shop  that  it 
was  not  needful  to  speak  French",  said  Lott  a  day  or  two 
after,  a  propos  of  the  foreign  aspect  of  the  houses.  It  is  the 
older  part  of  New  York  which  yields  this  impression,  due, 
I  suppose,  to  the  prevalence  of  green  Venetian-blind 
shutters,  like  those  which  prevail  on  the  Continent. 

Soon,  however,  when  we  reached  its  modern  parts,  the 
feeling  produced  by  the  aspect  of  New  York  was  one  of 
surprise  at  its  magnificence.  Thinking  of  it  chiefly  as  a 
centre  of  business-activity,  and  perhaps  unduly  influenced 
by  much  that  I  had  read  about  its  ill-paved  streets,  I  had 
conceived  the  place  as  having  small  pretensions  to  architec- 
tural beauty;  and  was  consequently  unprepared  for  the 
multitude  of  imposing  edifices.  My  diary  says — "  Am 
astonished  by  the  grandeur  of  New  York".  We  have 
nothing  to  compare  with  Fifth  Avenue. 

Prof,  and  Mrs.  Youmans  had  expected  me  to  be  their 
guest,  and  had  made  arrangements  for  my  friend  Lott  also, 
in  fulfilment  of  an  invitation  sent  him  to  England.  But  I  was 
obliged  to  disappoint  them.  In  my  shattered  state  I  dared 
not  undertake  the  social  responsibilities  which  would  have 
been  entailed,  even  in  the  absence  of  visitors.  And  then 
the  interviewers  had  to  be  avoided.  These  quickly  made 
their  appearance,  and,  though  put  off  for  a  time  by  the 
statement  that  I  was  too  unwell  to  see  anyone,  would  have 


.Et.  62.]  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  389 

soon  returned.  The  result  was  that  before  the  day  -was 
over,  we  migrated  to  the  Windsor  Hotel ;  where,  my  com- 
panion having  a  great  faculty  for  silence  when  need  was, 
I  felt  in  his  company  safe  against  excitement. 

Next  day  was  spent  in  making  preparations  for  our  tour ; 
and  the  morning  after  saw  us  on  our  way  to  a  place  of  rest, 
which  was  so  needful  for  me. 

The  first  part  of  our  journey  was  by  steamer  up  the 
Hudson,  which  scarcely  reached  my  expectations,  save  about 
West  Point,  where  it  is  picturesque.  Leaving  it  at  Rondout 
Ferry,  we  went  thence  by  railway  and  vehicle  to  the 
Kaarterskill  Hotel — the  place  Youmans  had  fixed  upon  for 
us.  Some  3,000  feet  above  the  sea,  this  is  one  of  those  refuges 
to  which  the  Americans  fly  in  July  and  August  from  the 
heat  of  their  cities.     Here  five  days  were  passed  beneficially. 

The  entry  we  made  in  the  hotel-book  was — "  Mr.  Edward 
Lott  and  friend  "  :  the  intention  being  to  avoid  salutations 
and  inquiries.  Of  course  this  mode  of  entry  was  in  itself 
suspicious;  and  though  the  New  York  papers  had  given  no 
clue  (for  they  had  been  successfully  mystified  respecting 
my  movements),  the  host  and  some  of  the  guests,  when  the 
time  for  our  departure  came,  said  that  from  the  beginning 
they  had  known  who  the  "  friend  "  was ;  but  that,  seeing  I 
wished  to  be  quiet,  they  had  respected  the  incognito.  We 
did  not  repeat  the  device,  which  was  obviously  useless. 

Our  rambles  during  the  few  days'  stay  on  the  top  of  this 
mountain  (or  big  hill,  rather,  for  the  Catskills  have  not  that 
ruggedness  which  the  word  mountains  suggests)  made  us 
acquainted,  among  other  things,  with  a  portion  of  virgin 
forest.  I  was  shown  how  erroneous  was  my  preconception. 
In  common,  I  daresay,  with  the  preconceptions  of  most 
others,  mine  had  been  based  on  experiences  of  woods  at 
home;  and  I  had  failed  to  imagine  an  important  trait,  of 
which  we  see  nothing  in  England — the  cumbering  of  the 
ground   on   every   side   with   the  decaying,  moss-covered, 


390  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA,  [1882. 

trunks  of  past  generations  of  trees^  lying  prone,  or  leaning 
one  upon  another  at  various  angles,  and  in  all  stages 
of  decay. 

While  sitting  on  a  ledge  of  rock  facing  the  East,  and 
looking  over  the  wide  country  stretching  away  to  the 
horizon  beyond  the  Hudson,  it  was  interesting  to  think 
that  here  we  were  in  a  land  we  had  read  about  all  our 
lives — interesting,  and  a  little  difficult,  to  think  of  it  as  some 
three  thousand  miles  from  the  island  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Atlantic  whence  we  had  come.  Not  easy  was  it  either, 
and  indeed  impossible  in  any  true  sense,  to  conceive  the 
real  position  of  this  island  on  that  vast  surface  which  slowly 
curves  downward  beyond  the  horizon :  the  impossibility 
being  one  which  I  have  vividly  felt  when  gazing  sea-ward 
at  the  masts  of  a  vessel  below  the  horizon,  and  trying  to 
conceive  the  actual  surface  of  the  Earth,  as  slowly  bending 
round  till  its  meridians  met  eight  thousand  miles  beneath 
my  feet  :  the  attempt  producing  what  may  be  figuratively 
called  a  kind  of  mental  choking,  from  the  endeavour  to  put 
into  the  intellectual  structure  a  conception  immensely  too 
large  for  it. 

I  may  remark,  in  passing,  that  it  is  well  occasionally  thus 
to  do,  what  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  in  a  thousand 
never  think  of  doing — to  dwell  awhile  on  such  imaginations 
as  we  can  frame  of  those  vast  cosmical  phenomena  amid 
which  "  our  little  lives  "  are  passed — to  think,  for  example, 
that  while  the  eye  has  been  passing  from  the  begin- 
ning of  this  line  to  the  end  of  it,  the  Earth  has  travelled 
thirty  miles ! 

On  August  29,  a  drive,  a  short  railway-journey,  a  ferry 
passage,  and  a  longer  railway-journey,  brought  us  to 
Albany,  where  a  few  hours  were  spent :  mainly  in  seeing  the 
Capitol.  In  fulfilment  of  a  pre-arrangement  we  then 
went  on  to  Saratoga. 

The  pre-arrangement   was    that    Prof.    Youmans    and 


^T.  62.]  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  391 

his  wife  would  meet  ns  there.  We  found  them  at  the 
United  States  Hotel,  which  my  American  friend  wished 
me  to  see  as  unique — "  said  to  be  the  biggest  hotel  in  the 
world — 1500  guests,"  as  my  diary  notes.  The  sight  was, 
however,  partially  thrown  away  on  me.  I  have  a  vague 
recollection  of  the  vast  dining-room  with  its  long  ranges  of 
tables  and  multitudinous  persons;  but  the  persons  them- 
selves left  no  impression.  I  am  a  bad  observer  of  humanity 
in  the  concrete  :  being  too  much  given  to  wandering  off  into 
the  abstract.  My  habit  of  falling  into  trains  of  thought 
is  at  variance  with  the  habit  of  watching  people  around. 
I  suppose  I  lack  a  good  deal  of  knowledge  to  be  hence 
derived,  and  lose  a  good  deal  of  amusement.  In  these 
latter  years,  especially,  I  find  that  I  contemplate  so  little 
the  faces  of  those  whom  I  see  at  parties  or  elsewhere,  that 
several  meetings  are  commonly  needful  to  make  me  remem- 
ber them.  Naturally,  then,  I  did  not  profit  much  by  the 
opportunity  of  criticizing  a  crowd  of  American  fashionables. 
Neither  their  manners  nor  their  costumes,  both  of  which 
would,  I  suppose,  have  called  remarks  from  most  people, 
called  any  remarks  from  me.  Costumes,  indeed,  I  usually 
notice  so  little  that,  unless  they  are  very  good  or  very  bad, 
I  retain  not  the  slightest  recollections  of  them.  A  simple 
dress  which  is  elegant  without  the  appearance  of  effort, 
and  a  dress  which  is  tawdry,  or  discordant  in  its  colours,  or 
bad  from  over-elaboration,  I  occasionally  remark.  But 
unless  as  presenting  one  or  other  of  these  extremes,  the 
attire  of  no  lady  at  a  dinner  party  or  soirh  ever  leaves  the 
slightest  trace  in  my  memory.  Such  attention  as  I  give  is 
given  to  the  wearers  and  not  to  their  clothes. 

One  person  whom  I  saw,  however,  and  one  criticism 
which  I  passed  on  him,  I  do  remember.  Walking  about  the 
hotel  garden  was  a  railway  magnate,  said  to  be  one  of 
the  wealthiest  of  Americans.  He  was  a  coarse-featured 
man ;  and,  I  was  told,  had  manners  to  match.  Before  I  left 
England,  one  who  had  business-relations  with  hira  offered  me 


392  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  [1882. 

a  letter  of  introduction;  saying  that,  if  I  behaved  civilly 
and  went  to  dine  with  him,  he  would  probably  give  me  a 
free  pass  over  the  railways.  But  I  preferred  not  to  accept 
the  introduction. 

Two  days  suflBced  for  Saratoga;  and  on  the  morning 
of  Sept.  1  we  departed  northwards  by  railway  to  Lake 
St.  George,  and  by  steamer  to  its  upper  end :  being  accom- 
panied so  far  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Toumans,  who  there  bade 
us  good-bye  and  returned  home.  Lake  St.  George  is  the 
most  picturesque  thing  I  saw  in  the  United  States.  Three 
of  our  English  lakes  placed  end  to  end  would  be  something 
like  it  in  extent  and  scenery.  A  steamer  up  Lake  Cham- 
plain  delivered  us  at  Burlington  in  the  course  of  the  after- 
noon ;  and  the  afternoon  of  the  next  day  saw  us  on  our 
way  to  Canada.  Mr.  lies,  the  manager  of  the  Windsor 
Hotel,  had  some  months  before  written  pressing  me  to  stay 
there  when  I  visited  Montreal.  He  came  to  a  station  some 
distance  down  the  line  to  meet  us,  and  piloted  us  thence  to 
our  destination.  During  the  few  days  of  our  stay,  we  were 
treated  by  him  en  prince. 

The  meeting  of  the  British  Association  had  ended  before 
our  arrival.  On  the  whole  this  was  fortunate;  for,  pro- 
bably, had  it  been  going  on,  further  mischiefs  would  have 
been  added  to  those  which  I  had  suffered.  The  sights  of 
Montreal  and  its  surroundings  remained  the  sole  attractions. 
There  was  the  ascent  of  the  hill  which  gives  its  name  to 
the  place — Mount  Royal;  there  was  a  drive  up  the  banks 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Lachine  rapids ;  and  there  were 
the  noteworthy  buildings  of  the  city  itself. 

To  many  travellers  these  would,  I  dare  say,  have  given 
more  pleasure  than  they  gave  to  me;  for  I  failed  to  exclude 
the  thought  of  certain  antecedents  not  in  harmony  with  a 
feeling  of  admiration.  For  a  generation  or  more  Canadians 
have  been  coming  to  England  for  capital  to  make  their  great 
lines  of  railway;  and  have  put  before  English  investors 


^T.  62.]  A  VISIT  TO  MIERICA.  393 

Btatements  of  costs  and  profits  so  favourable^  that  they  have 
obtained  the  required  sums.  These  statements  have  proved 
far  more  wide  of  the  truth  than  such  statements  usually 
prove — so  wide  of  it  that  the  undertakings  have  been 
extremely  disastrous  to  investors :  impoverishing  great 
numbers^  and  ruining  not  a  few  (my  poor  friend  Lott 
becoming,  eventually,  one  of  these  last,  and  dying  pre- 
maturely in  consequence).  But  while,  to  open  up  these 
communications  which  have  been  so  immensely  beneficial 
to  their  commerce  and  industries,  the  Canadians  have,  by 
exaggerated  representations,  got  from  the  mother- country 
resources  which  they  were  supposed  unable  to  furnish  them- 
selves, they  have  yet  been  able  to  build  imposing  cities  full 
of  magnificent  mansions,  and  at  Montreal  an  hotel  far 
exceeding  in  grandeur  anything  the  mother- country  could, 
at  that  time,  show. 

Sunday  and  Monday  having  been  passed  at  Montreal,  half 
a  day  on  Tuesday  carried  us  by  the  Grand  Trunk  railway 
to  Brockville ;  where,  crossing  the  St.  Lawrence,  we  got  on 
board  a  steamer  bound  for  Alexandra  Bay — a  place  built 
for  visitors  to  "  The  Thousand  Islands  ".  Here  the  morrow 
was  spent  with  much  pleasure,  partly  in  a  hired  boat  which 
took  us  amid  the  islands  near  at  hand,  and  partly  in  an 
excursion-steamer  which  made  a  run  of  some  forty  miles,  it 
was  said,  through  the  remoter  islands.  How  the  region 
could  have  been  formed — how  the  St.  Lawrence  could  have 
cut  these  multitudinous  channels,  dividing  tree-covered 
masses  of  rock  of  all  sizes, — it  is  difficult  to  understand. 
But  it  is  the  romance  of  the  scene  which  chiefly  impresses 
one.  Obviously  this  trait  has  prompted  inhabitation;  for 
here  a  small  hotel,  and  there  a  villa,  peeps  out  amid  the 
trees.  It  has  become  the  fashion  among  wealthy  Americans 
to  have  one  of  these  small  water-guarded  areas  as  a  summer 
abode :  gratification  being  doubtless  given  to  a  sentiment 


394  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  [1882. 

which  is  active  during  boyhood  and  is  not  altogether  dead 
in  adult  life. 

Picking  us  up  next  day,  a  steamer  for  Toronto  carried 
us  through  another  region  of  "  The  Thousand  Islands/'  and 
presently  on  to  Lake  Ontario.  "  In  the  afternoon  we  came 
unto*'  a  town,  in  which  it  could  not  be  said  that  "it  seemed 
always  afternoon";  but  in  which,  contrariwise,  the  vivacity 
of  morning  seemed  conspicuous.  This  was  Kingston,  where 
the  steamer  stopped  for  a  time  to  take  in  wood.  We 
rambled  about  and  found,  to  our  astonishment  and  shame, 
that  though  containing  only  ten  or  twelve  thousand  people, 
Kingston  had  the  telephone  in  use  all  over  the  place.  I 
say  "to  our  shame",  because  at  that  time  (1882),  the 
telephone  was  scarcely  used  at  all  in  London,  and  was 
unknown  in  our  great  provincial  towns.  I  have  sometimes 
puzzled  myself  over  the  anomaly  that  while,  in  some  ways, 
the  English  are  extremely  enterprising,  they  are,  in  other 
ways,  extremely  unenterprising.  I  remember  that  in  1868 
the  hotel  I  stopped  at  in  Naples  had  electric  bells  to  all  the 
rooms;  though  in  England  no  such  appliances  had  come 
within  the  range  of  my  observation.  While  there  exist  a 
select  few  among  us  who  are  full  of  ideas,  the  great 
masses  of  our  people  appear  to  be  without  ideas.  Or, 
to  state  the  case  otherwise,  it  seems  as  if  the  English 
nature  (I  say  English,  because  I  do  not  assert  it  of  either 
Scotch  or  Irish)  exhibits  a  wider  range  than  any  other 
nature  between  its  heights  of  intelligence  and  its  depths 
of  stupidity. 

A  night  spent  on  board  the  steamer  while  traversing 
Lake  Ontario  was  followed  by  the  arrival  at  Toronto  before 
mid-day;  and,  after  a  few  hours  spent  there,  another 
steamer  took  us  across  the  lake  to  Niagara.  Thence,  after 
a  brief  railway-journey,  we  reached  the  Falls. 

"  Much  what  I  had  expected "  is  the  remark  in  my 
diary.     That    is,    the    Falls    neither    came    short    of     my 


Mt.  62.]  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  396 

expectations  nor  mucli  exceeded  them.  I  think,  however^ 
that  the  effect  of  closer  acquaintance  was  to  deepen  the 
impression  of  grandeur.  With  the  intermission  of  a  day 
at  Buffalo,  a  week  was  spent  in  contemplating  the  scene 
and  its  surroundings  from  all  points  of  view.  We  saw 
everything  that  was  to  be  seen,  including  the  "  Cave  of 
the  Winds  " ;  and  saw  it  with  the  deliberation  needful  for 
full  appreciation  and  enjoyment. 

I  was  a  good  deal  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  denuding 
action  by  which  the  falls  have  cut  their  way  back  so  far. 
Often  where  streams  make  deep  gorges,  they  do  it  by  the 
aid  of  stones  and  gravel  swept  down  in  times  of  flood, 
and  serving  to  file  the  rocks.  But  at  Niagara  no  hard 
masses  are  habitually  carried  over  by  the  water  to  act  as 
excavating  tools;  and  though,  a  mile  lower  down,  the  rapids 
are  violent  enough  to  carry  along  great  rocks  if  they 
came,  yet  the  intervening  space  of  water  has  a  current 
so  moderate  that  it  could  not  carry  along  even  boulders. 
How  then  is  the  material  cut  out,  and  in  what  shape 
transported  ?  There  seems  no  alternative  but  to  conclude 
that  the  denuding  force  is  the  unaided  impact  of  the  water 
on  the  rocks  at  the  bottom  of  the  fall.  The  fall  is  160  feet 
high;  and  it  is  calculated  that  it  delivers  100,000,000  tons 
of  water  per  hour,  or  more  than  27,000  tons  per  second. 
As  it  curls  over,  this  mass  of  water  is  probably  some 
20  feet  thick ;  and  though,  before  reaching  the  bottom  of 
the  water  below,  perhaps  30  or  40  feet  down,  its  superficial 
parts  must  lose  a  good  deal  of  their  velocity,  yet  its 
central  parts  are  probably  not  much  retarded.  At  the 
bottom,  this  mass  of  water  is  subject  to  a  lateral  pressure 
of,  say,  fifteen  pounds  to  the  square  inch ;  so  that  though, 
ordinarily,  a  stream  falling  on  a  hard  surface  disperses 
itself  laterally,  this  mass  of  water  is  in  great  measure 
prevented  from  thus  dispersing  itself.  Hence  the  rocks  on 
which  it  falls  have  to  bear  the  brunt  of,  say,  20,000  tons  per 
second  moving  with  a  velocity  of  more  than  100  feet  per 


396  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  [1882. 

second ;  and  we  must  infer  that  the  continnons  blow  is  so 
violent  that  simple  abrasion  detaches  particles  from  the 
surfaces  of  the  rocks  and  the  current  carries  them  away. 
Though  the  Clifton  Hotel,  at  which  we  stayed,  is  probably 
a  third  of  a  mile  from  the  Great  Fall,  and  though  my 
bedroom  was  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  building,  its 
windows  were  in  a  state  of  constant  jar;  and,  doubtless, 
this  tremendous  impact  was  the  cause. 

I  have  omitted  to  say  that  the  morning  after  our  arrival 
Prof.  Youmans  and  his  sister,  having  travelled  all  night 
from  New  York,  came  to  bear  us  company  for  a  few 
days.  Their  presence  added  much  to  the  enjoyments  of 
our  sojourn. 

Chicago,  at  which  place  Lott  had  some  relatives,  was  to 
have  been  the  western  limit  of  our  tour ;  but  my  state  was 
such  that  I  dared  not  undertake  so  long  a  journey.  I 
urged  my  friend  to  proceed  thither  without  me :  proposing 
to  stay  at  Niagara  till  his  return,  and  representing  that 
the  company  of  Miss  Youmans  would  keep  me  alive.  But 
I  could  not  persuade  him :  he  insisted  on  remaining  to 
take  care  of  me. 

Our  first  stopping-place  after  leaving  the  Falls  on 
Sept.  16,  was  Cleveland;  respecting  which  my  diary  says — 
"walked  about;  surprised  by  the  display  and  bustle"  in  so 
new  a  place.  After  Cleveland  came  Pittsburg,  boasted  of 
as  the  smokiest  town  in  the  world. 

Why  Cleveland  and  why  Pittsburg  ?  may  naturally  be 
asked.  The  answer  carries  me  back  to  our  voyage  across 
the  Atlantic.  On  the  Servians  tender  at  Liverpool,  a  letter 
of  introduction  was  handed  to  me  by  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie, 
whose  iron-works  at  Pittsburg,  aided  in  their  prosperity  by 
protection,  have  made  him  a  millionaire.  He  pressed  me 
to  visit  him  at  Cresson,  a  place  on  the  Alleghanies,  like 
the  Kaarterskill  Hotel  on  the  Catskills,  used  as  a  summer 
refuge  by  over-heated  Americans.     I  eventually  yielded 


JSt.  62.]  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  397 

to  the  pressure;    and  our  journey  through  Cleveland  to 
Pittsburg  was  in  fulfilment  of  the  promise  made. 

The  repulsiveness  of  Pittsburg  led  me  to  break  through 
my  resolution  always  to  stop  at  an  hotel ;  and  in  the  evening 
we  drove  with  Mr.  Carnegie  to  the  house  of  his  brother  a 
few  miles  out.  After  we  had  inspected  his  works  next  day, 
he  took  us  by  special  carriage,  which  to  my  great  comfort 
contained  a  sleeping  compartment,  to  Cresson.  It  was  now 
the  19th  of  September;  the  summer  heats  were  over;  the 
visitors  had  gone  home ;  the  hotel  was  closed ;  and  Mr. 
Carnegie's  annexe  was  unavailable.  He  took  us  to  an  old- 
fashioned  inn  at  '^Mountain  Top".  His  departure  after  a 
day  spent  in  showing  us  the  neighbourhood,  and  our 
departure  after  a  day  spent  in  visiting  the  little  town  of 
Ebensburg,  were  followed  by  descent  of  the  Eastern  flank  of 
the  Alleghanies  to  Harrisburg.  To  a  day  spent  in  rambling 
about  this  not- very-interesting  town,  succeeded  a  railway- 
journey  to  Washington. 

Whether  the  fact  that  the  President  (or  rather  the  Vice- 
President,  for  Mr.  Garfield  was  dead)  was  away  at  Newport, 
prompted  the  decision  to  go  direct  to  Washington  without 
stopping  at  Baltimore,  I  cannot  remember;  but  I  remember 
that  his  absence  was  a  cause  of  satisfaction  to  me.  Aversion 
to  ceremonial  interviews  I  have  before  exemplified  as  a  trait 
of  mine.  Partly  this  is  due  to  dislike  of  formalities,  and 
partly  to  a  disinclination  to  converse  with  strangers.  Under 
ordinary  circumstances,  thinking  is  to  me  more  pleasurable 
than  talking ;  and  hence,  in  the  absence  of  an  interlocutor 
in  whom  I  feel  interest,  I  am  not  tempted  to  talk.  Some 
sentiment  of  friendship  or  personal  regard  is  requisite 
to  make  conversation  preferable. 

The  sights  of  Washington  of  course  received  due 
attention.  We  visited  the  White  House,  though  not  its 
occupant ;  we  went  over  the  Capitol,  and  paused  for  a  few 
minutes  in  its  then  empty  legislative  chambers;  with  ]\Iajor 


398  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  [1882. 

Powell  as  our  guide  we  perambulated  the  Smithsonian 
Institution  and  its  surroundings ;  we  contemplated  the 
Washington  monument,  then  in  course  of  erection ;  and  we 
did  some  justice  to  the  suburbs.  One  of  our  days  was  of 
course  devoted  to  an  excursion  up  the  Potomac  to  Mount 
Vernon,  famous  as  Washington's  home  and  burial  place; 
where  some  hours  were  spent  in  looking  over  rooms  and 
relics,  and  wandering  about  the  grounds.  I  remember  we 
were  astonished  at  seeing  a  place  planted  with  slips  of 
willow  notij&ed  as  having  been  brought  from  Napoleon's 
tomb  in  St.  Helena.  The  incongruity  struck  us  both  as 
passing  strange. 

Was  it  at  Washington,  or  was  it  elsewhere,  or  was  it  at 
all  places,  that  I  was  struck  vnth.  the  passion  of  the  Ameri- 
cans for  iced  water  ?  Not  only  does  it  come  up  at  every 
meal,  but  even  in  the  middle  of  the  night  it  must  be  made 
accessible  :  the  habit  being  to  place  in  the  mouth  of  a  jug 
a  wedge-shaped  piece  of  ice  too  large  to  go  in,  and  with  its 
narrow  end  downwards,  so  that,  thawing  all  night  and 
dripping  into  the  jug,  it  insures  an  ever-ready  supply  of 
water  just  above  freezing  point.  Evidently  the  origin  of 
this  habit  is  the  need  for  a  sensation,  which  in  one  form  or 
other  is  universal.  Everyone  dislikes  food  that  is  insipid, 
and,  when  there  is  no  natural  taste  in  it,  condiments  and 
sweetening  agents  are  resorted  to.  Drinks  that  have 
flavours,  sweet  or  bitter,  are  preferred  to  tasteless  drinks; 
and,  if  a  liquid  not  otherwise  attractive  is  taken,  then  it 
must  be  not  tepid,  but  decidedly  hot  or  decidedly  cold. 
But  why  have  the  Americans  especially  become  such  lovers 
of  iced  water  ?  Possibly  the  prevalent  disuse  of  alcoholic 
drinks,  which  yield  the  required  sensations,  and  which  one 
scarcely  ever  sees  at  table  in  the  hotels,  is  the  cause.  The 
sensation  of  taste  being  ungratified,  the  sensation  of 
temperature  is,  as  far  as  possible,  substituted  for  it. 

There  can,  I  think,  be  little  doubt  that  the  habit  is  an 
injurious    one.     In    the   first   place,    taking   an   amount   of 


^T.  62.]  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  399 

liquid  much  exceeding  that  required  for  carrying  on  the 
bodily  functions,  is  pretty  certain  to  be  detrimental ;  and  in 
the  second  place,  frequently  taking  this  at  a  temperature  so 
much  below  blood-heat,  is  also  pretty  certain  to  be 
detrimental  by  continually  checking  digestion,  which  is 
temporarily  arrested  by  an  influx  of  cold  liquid.  It  is  true 
that  upon  occasion  cold  liquid  may,  by  reaction,  stimulate 
the  gastric  circulation  ;  but  perpetually  exciting  the  blood- 
vessels to  reactions  inevitably  produces  in  them  an  abnormal 
state,  resulting  in  a  chronically  deficient  circulation. 

Our  arrival  at  Baltimore  in  the  evening  of  the  28th  was 
followed  next  morning  by  the  arrival  of  Youmans  from 
New  York.  Whether  my  state  of  health  would  negative 
the  proposed  public  dinner,  had  remained  an  undecided 
question ;  and  he  came  over  to  see  what  was  now  my  state 
and  my  decision.  Some  improvement  had  taken  place ; 
and  though  in  my  diary  entries  of  "  bad  nights,*'  ^^  wretched 
nights,'^  &c.,  were  frequent,  the  number  of  better  nights  had 
increased.  Hence  I  thought  I  might  venture;  and, 
returning  to  New  York,  he  thereafter  busied  himself  in 
making  preparations. 

We  went  to  the  Mount  Vernon  Hotel,  which  was,  to 
my  thinking,  the  best  we  met  with  in  the  United  States  : 
moderate  in  size  (small,  indeed,  according  to  the  American 
standard)  and  well  appointed.  I  detest  big  hotels,  with 
vast  crowds  of  guests :  not  liking  to  feel  myself  a  mere 
unit  mechanically  manipulated  in  a  great  machine.  I 
believe  that  at  the  Mount  Vernon  Hotel,  as  elsewhere,  the 
waiters,  negro  and  half-caste,  were  considerably  surprised 
by  my  disregard  of  their  dictations.  Clothed  with  a  little 
brief  authority,  they  delight  in  exercising  it ;  and,  in  the 
hotels  everywhere,  habitually  fix  on  this  or  that  table  for  a 
guest  in  a  peremptory  kind  of  way.  Avoidance  of  draught, 
obtainment  of  light,  or  other  reason,  often  led  me  to  ignore 
the  choice  made  for  me,  where  no  claims  of  other  guests 


400  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  [1882. 

were  in  question.  Evidently  the  waiters  were  unused  to 
this ;  for  Americans  commonly  make  no  demurs  either  to  the 
bedrooms  assigned  to  them  by  the  clerk  at  the  bureau,  or 
to  the  tables  they  are  motioned  to  by  the  head-waiter.  The 
English  have  the  repute  among  them  of  being  grumblers, 
and  I  believe  I  fully  maintained  the  character. 

One  of  the  things  I  saw  in  Baltimore  was  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  which  Prof.  Sylvester,  then  engaged 
there,  took  us  over;  but  the  thing  which  gave  me  most 
pleasure  was  the  Peabody  Institute,  remarkable  for  its 
architectural  beauty,  especially  in  the  interior.  The 
library  struck  me  as  combining  use  and  beauty  in  a 
manner  perfectly  satisfactory.  I  can  recall  nothing  equal 
to  it.  The  name  of  the  architect,  which  I  inquired,  has 
unfortunately  lapsed  from  my  memory. 

Some  years  before,  I  had  met  in  England  Mr.  J.  W. 
Garrett,  President  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railway. 
He  lived  in  Baltimore  during  the  winter,  and  in  summer 
at  his  residence,  Montebello,  a  few  miles  out.  We  drove 
over ;  and  by  pressure  I  was  induced  to  break  through  my 
rule  of  taking  up  my  abode  at  an  hotel.  We  spent  at 
Montebello  five  pleasant  and  beneficial  days :  lounging 
in  the  garden,  driving,  and  on  one  occasion  being  taken 
down  the  upper  part  of  Chesapeake  Bay  by  our  host  iu  a 
private  steamer.  As  a  relaxation  he  had  taken  to  breeding 
horses,  and  was  proud  of  his  stud.  He  had  many  men 
engaged  in  making  a  private  race-course,  on  which  to  test 
the  speed  of  his  colts. 

Mr.  Garrett  exhibited  the  results,  so  common  in  America. 
of  over-work.  When  I  saw  him  in  England  I  supposed 
that  he  was  ten  years  or  more  my  senior ;  but  I  found,  to 
my  astonishment,  that  he  was  my  junior.  To  the  satis- 
faction of  his  wife,  I  began  to  preach  to  him  the  gospel  of 
relaxation — a  gospel  on  which,  a  few  weeks  later  I  enlarged 
in  public  at  greater  length. 

Poor  man  !   he  did  not  live  long  to  carry  on  either  worj^ 


^T.  62.]  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  401 

or  amusement.  Some  three  years  after,  Mrs.  Garrett, 
thrown  from  her  carriage,  died  in  a  few  days,  and  he, 
chronically  out  of  health,  succumbed  to  the  shock. 

The  next  stage  in  our  journey  brought  us  to  Philadelphia. 
To  it,  of  course,  some  days  were  to  be  devoted.  Mr.  G. 
W.  Childs,  who  makes  it  a  point  to  entertain  all  notables, 
would  have  had  us  stay  with  him,  but  from  doing  this  I 
excused  myself.  In  various  ways,  however,  he  conduced 
to  our  convenience.  Mr.  Cook,  the  correspondent  of  Tlip 
Times  at  Philadelphia,  being  our  guide,  and  Mr.  Childs' 
carriage  being  at  our  disposal,  we  saw  what  was  to  be 
seen  at  our  ease. 

There  were  the  extensive  engine  works  of  Messrs. 
Baldwin,  where  they  are  said  to  turn  out  a  complete 
locomotive  engine  jper  day.  There  was  the  magnificent 
park,  in  a  drive  through  which  Prof.  Leidy  was  our 
companion.  There  was  an  excursion  up  and  down  the 
Delaware  River,  in  a  steamer  which  Mr.  Roberts,  President 
of  the  Philadelphia  Railway,  placed  at  our  disposal.  There 
was  the  Girard  College,  extensive  and  well-appointed,  but 
subjecting  its  boys  to  a  mechanical,  coercive  kind  of 
discipline  which  called  forth  from  me  a  strong  expression 
of  disapproval.  I  hoped  the  ofiicial  who  showed  us  round 
would  communicate  it  to  those  in  authority. 

Some  immense  municipal  buildings  were,  I  remember, 
among  the  attractions  of  the  city.  I  was  told  by  Mr. 
Childs  that  there  existed  a  committee  of  citizens  formed 
for  the  purpose  of  putting  a  check  on  the  extrava- 
gance of  the  local  authorities ;  and  I  believe  that  in  some 
other  American  cities  there  are  like  committees.  A 
generation  ago  it  was  commonly  thought  that  democracy 
was,  and  would  be,  economical;  since  nothing  could  be 
more  obvious  than  that  when  the  people  had  power,  they 
would  not  tolerate  the  wasteful  expenditure  of  the  money 
which  they  furnished.     But  experience    is  not   verifying 

26 


402  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  [1882. 

this  a  priori  conclusion  in  America,  and  is  not  verifying 
it  witli  us. 


One  more  railway-journey,  bringing  us  to  New  York, 
completed  the  tour  we  had  made  during  the  seven  weeks 
of  our  absence.  On  looking  at  the  map  and  seeing  how 
small  was  our  circuit  and  how  enormous  was  the  area  of 
the  States  not  even  approached  by  us,  I  felt  astonished, 
and  almost  alarmed,  at  the  vastness  of  the  society  we  were 
in.  To  be  told  that  the  dividing  line  between  East  and 
West,  on  the  two  sides  of  which  the  populations  balance, 
is  fast  approaching  the  Mississippi,  amazes  one  on 
remembering  how  short  a  time  it  is  since  the  countries 
to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi  were  inhabited  only  by 
Indians.  Clearly,  at  the  present  rate  of  progress  (unless 
internal  dissension  should  cause  separation,  which  is  quite 
possible),  the  United  States  will  very  soon  be  by  far  the  most 
powerful  nation  in  the  world. 

Our  experiences  of  travel  did  not  verify  the  impressions 
derived  from  books  read  in  past  years.  Intrusiveness  was 
a  trait  of  Americans  described  and  exemplified;  but  we 
found  none  of  it.  I  cannot  remember  one  occasion  on 
which  we  were  addressed  by  fellow-travellers.  The  only 
intrusiveness  was  that  of  the  interviewers,  who,  in  fulfil- 
ment of  their  functions,  tried,  at  various  places,  to  see  me. 
As  I  had  anticipated,  my  friend  Lott  served  as  an  admirable 
buffer,  and  in  all  cases  pleaded,  truly  enough,  that  I  was 
not  sujQficiently  well  to  be  visible.  As  they  could  not 
interview  me  they  sometimes  interviewed  him ;  and  on  one 
occasion  he  figured  in  the  report  as  my 'Heonine  friend". 
I  can  understand  his  calm,  massive  face,  and  large  beard, 
suggesting  the  epithet;  and  probably  when  occasion  called 
for  it  he  might  be  leonine  enough  in  action;  but  in  my 
long  experience  of  him  he  had  proved  himself  a  very 
pacific  lion. 

Interviewers  when  baulked  are  apt  to  be  disagreeable. 


^T.  62.]  A   VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  403 

Feeling  bound  to  make  some  report,  they  pick  up  such 
details  as  they  can  from  servants,  and  are  not  over  par- 
ticular respecting  the  trustworthiness  of  their  informants. 
Indeed,  in  the  accounts  they  thus  gather  of  sayings  and 
doings,  food  and  habits,  anything  which  admits  of  having  a 
ludicrous  aspect  given  to  it  is  made  the  most  of. 

After  my  return  to  New  York,  I  named  to  Youmans 
some  of  the  annoying  things  that  had  been  said:  among 
others  a  reported  opinion  of  mine  about  an  English 
author,  then  in  America.  It  was  purely  fictitious;  and  I 
remarked  that  it  would  be  almost  worth  while  to  have 
an  interview  for  the  purpose  of  contradicting  these  false 
statements.  "  By  all  means,"  said  he, — "  let  me  interview 
you."  I  acceded  to  the  suggestion,  and  next  morning  was 
appointed  for  the  purpose.  The  result  was,  however,  that 
I  practically  interviewed  myself.  Two  instances  excepted, 
the  questions  as  well  as  the  answers  were  my  own.  Ever 
ready  to  make  the  best  of  the  occasion,  Youmans  had 
this  seeming-interview  set  up  in  type,  and  distributed 
impressions  to  the  New  York  papers,  and,  in  advance,  to 
the  Chicago  papers.  Hence  it  appeared  simultaneously 
in  whole  or  in  part  in  many  of  them :  so  being  unlike  an 
ordinary  interview,  which  is  the  product  of  the  reporter  for 
a  single  paper.  Of  course  my  remarks,  after  my  manner, 
were  mainly  critical ;  and  while  not  failing  to  recognize  the 
greatness  of  American  achievements,  consisted  largely  of 
adverse  comments  on  their  political  life.  Nevertheless  they 
were  well  received:  I  suppose  because  they  were  seen 
to  be  the  criticisms  of  a  friend  anxious  for  American 
prosperity,  rather  than  of  an  enemy  prompted  by  a  dislike 
for  their  institutions. 

New  York  had  now  to  be  seen ;  for  of  course  the  day  we 
spent  in  it  after  our  arrival  enabled  us  only  to  glance  at 
some  of  its  main  thoroughfares.  The  Central  Park  was 
explored  and  much  admired ;  there  were  two  excursions  to 
Brooklyn;    some  of  the  centres  of  business  were  visited; 

26* 


404  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  [1882. 

hours  on  sundry  occasions  were  spent  at  the  Century  Club, 
and  some  at  the  Lotus  Club ;  and  we  went  to  one  or  two 
theatres  and  admired  the  acting,  which  we  had  not  done 
at  Washington  or  Philadelphia. 

But  we  had  still  to  see  something  of  the  New  England 
States;  and  after  nine  days  in  New  York  we  departed 
northwards. 

Our  first  stopping-place  was  New  Haven,  where  a 
morning  was  devoted  to  inspecting  Yale  College,  and  more 
especially  Prof.  Marsh's  collection  of  remains  of  marvellous 
fossil  mammals  from  the  far  West.  Then  in  the  after- 
noon we  pursued  our  course  to  Newport,  which  we  had 
been  told  before  leaving  England  was  one  of  the  places 
to  be  visited.  The  chief  reason  assigned  for  visiting  it, 
however — namely,  that  it  was  the  summer  resort  of  the 
fashionable  world — was  no  longer  in  force ;  for  the  season 
was  over.  This  we  did  not  regret.  The  place  has  some 
natural  attractions,  and,  as  being  composed  mainly  of 
scattered  viUas,  is  more  like  Bournemouth  than  any  other 
of  our  watering-places.  Six  pleasant  and  beneficial  days 
were  spent  there. 

And  now  of  course  came  Boston,  to  which  we  took  our 
way  on  Oct.  28th,  occasionally  admiring  as  we  went  the 
fine  masses  of  gorgeous  autumn  foliage. 

The  day  of  our  departure  for  Boston  was  determined  by 
an  invitation  to  dine  with  the  Saturday  Club  ;  which  we  did 
a  few  hours  after  our  arrival.  At  this  weekly  dinner  there 
had  for  many  preceding  years  been  gathered  the  chief 
notabilities  of  Boston  and  its  neighbourhood — especially 
Concord.  Until  recently  Emerson  had  presided ;  and  now 
the  president  was  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes.  Tho  "Autocrat 
of  the  Breakfast  Table  "  proved  himself  a  very  genial  head 
of  the  dinner  table.  It  was  pleasant  to  meet,  in  company 
with  others  less  known,  one  whose  writings  had  given  me 
80  much  pleasure,  and  some  copies  of  whose  best  known 


^T.  62.]  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  405 

book  I  liad  given  to  friends  as  a  book  to  be  read 
and  re-read. 

Of  course  among  Bostonians,  one  who  had  done  so  much 
as  an  expositor  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy — Mr.  Fiske — 
was  the  first  to  whom  attention  was  due ;  and  we  early  went 
over  to  the  suburb,  Cambridge,  where  he  lives.  After 
luncheon  with  him  we  called  on  Prof.  Asa  Gray,  and  saw 
something  of  the  Botanical  Garden  before  our  return  to 
Boston  and  our  evening  at  the  Union  Club.  Exploring 
and  admiring  the  city  occupied  us  the  following  morning — 
ascending  the  Bunker  Hill  monument,  visiting  the  Eastern 
suburbs  &c.  The  day  after  came  a  visit  to  the  Museum  of 
Arts,  and  then  an  inspection  of  Harvard,  with  Fiske  as  our 
guide  j  and  subsequently  a  drive  with  him  through  Long- 
worthy  and  the  "Western  suburbs. 

Some  two  hours  next  day  were  spent  at  Lexington, 
which  Lott  was  anxious  to  see  as  a  typical  New  England 
village  ;  and  then  we  continued  our  journey  to  Concord. 
Our  chief  purpose  was  of  course  to  visit  Emerson's  house ; 
and  here  a  pleasant  hour  was  spent  in  company  with  his 
widow,  son,  and  daughter.  "We  were  then  taken  to  the 
cemetery.  Not  many  months  had  passed  since  Emerson's 
death,  and  the  grave-heap  was  undistinguished  by  any 
monument.  "  Sleepy  Hollow  "  is  so  beautiful  and  poetical 
a  spot  as  to  make  one  almost  wish  to  die  at  Concord  for 
the  purpose  of  being  buried  there. 

And  now  there  occurred  a  disaster.  We  were  in  danger 
of  losing  the  train,  and  I  thoughtlessly  ran  some  distance 
at  full  speed.  The  effort,  which  I  perceived  at  the 
moment  was  too  much  for  me,  did  great,  and  I  believe 
permanent,  damage.  The  night  which  followed  was  so 
wretched  as  to  prompt  the  immediate  resolution  to  leave 
Boston  and  its  excitements;  and,  sending  to  Dr.  Holmes, 
with  whom  I  was  to  dine,  an  apology  for  breaking  the 
engagement,  we  forthwith  went  back  to  Newport.  This 
step   was   taken   in   the   hope   that  a  little   quiet   would 


406  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  [1882. 

restore  me  :  its  promptness  being  due  to  the  consciousness 
that  the  time  for  the  dinner  was  approaching. 

Five  days  did  a  little,  but  only  a  little,  towards 
mitigating  the  mischief.  The  dinner  was  appointed  for 
the  9th ;  and  on  the  afternoon  of  the  8th  we  were  obliged 
to  depart  for  New  York. 

The  prospect  before  me  was  sufficiently  alarming.  An 
occasion  on  which,  more  perhaps  than  on  any  other  in  my 
life,  I  ought  to  have  been  in  good  condition,  bodily  and 
mental,  came  when  I  was  in  a  condition  worse  than  I 
had  been  for  six-and- twenty  years.  "  Wretched  night ;  no 
sleep  at  all ;  kept  in  room  all  day  ",  says  my  diary  ;  and  I 
entertained  "  great  fear  I  should  collapse  ".  When  the 
hour  came  for  making  my  appearance  at  Delmonico's, 
where  the  dinner  was  given,  I  got  my  friends  to  secrete 
me  in  an  ante-room  until  the  last  moment,  so  that 
I  might  avoid  all  excitements  of  introductions  and  con- 
gratulations ;  and  as  Mr.  Evarts,  who  presided,  handed 
me  on  to  the  dais,  I  begged  him  to  limit  his  conversa- 
tion with  me  as  much  as  possible,  and  to  expect  very 
meagre  responses. 

The  event  proved  that,  trying  though  the  tax  was,  there 
did  not  result  the  disaster  I  feared ;  and  when  Mr.  Evarts 
had  duly  uttered  the  compliments  of  the  occasion,  I 
was  able  to  get  through  my  prepared  speech  without 
difficulty,  though  not  with  much  effect;  for  I  have  no 
natural  gift  of  oratory,  and  what  little  power  of  impressive 
utterance  I  may  have  was  in  abeyance.  It  goes  without 
saying  that  I  diverged  a  good  deal  from  the  form  of 
response  customary  on  such  occasions.  While  setting  out 
with  a  due  recognition  of  my  indebtedness  to  American 
sympathy,  my  address  was  mainly  devoted  to  a  criticism  of 
American  life,  as  characterized  by  over-devotion  to  work. 
The  thesis  on  which  I  enlarged  was  that  life  is  not  for 
learning  nor  is  life  for  working,  but  learning  and  working 


Mt.  62.]  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA-  40? 

are  for  life.  And  a  corollary  was  tliat  tlie  future  haa 
in  store  a  new  ideal,  differing  as  mncli  from  the  present 
ideal  of  industrialism  as  that  ideal  differs  from  past 
ideal  of  militancy. 

Of  the  proceedings  which  followed  I  need  only  say  that 
they  were  somewhat  trying  to  sit  through.  Compliments, 
even  when  addressed  to  one  privately,  do  not  give  unalloyed 
pleasure.  To  be  wholly  pleasing,  they  must  be  indirect 
or  more  or  less  disguised.  As  may  be  imagined,  then, 
unqualified  eulogies  uttered  by  one  speaker  after  another 
before  an  audience  to  whose  inquiring  glances  I  was 
exposed  on  all  sides,  were  not  quite  easy  to  bear— especi- 
ally in  my  then  state.  However,  they  had  to  be  borne,  and 
by  and  by  I  became  tolerably  callous.  When  I  have  said 
that  everything  passed  off  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  my 
friend  Youmans,  I  have  sufficiently  indicated  the  success 
of  the  dinner  and  its  sequences.  Ready,  as  usual,  to 
make  capital  of  everything,  he  prepared  a  little  volume  in 
which  were  published  together  the  "  Interview "  and  the 
report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  dinner,  joined  with  letters 
and  undelivered  speeches. 

Rest  and  preparations  for  departure  occupied  the  next 
day;  and  then,  on  the  11th  November,  after  lunching  with 
Youmans — taking  our  last  meal  with  him  as  we  did  our 
first — we  went  on  board  the  "  Germanic.^'  Various  friends 
and  a  sprinkling  of  strangers  were  there  to  see  us  off. 
Among  these  last  was  one  who  drew  me  into  conversation 
concerning  a  recent  election  in  which  the  "  bosses  ^^  had 
been  defeated,  and  asked  my  opinion  about  the  result; 
which,  taken  unawares,  I  gave  without  much  thought.  It 
afterwards  occurred  to  me  that  I  had  been  out-manoeuvered; 
and  my  suspicion  was  verified  on  our  arrival  at  Queenstown, 
where,  among  many  newspapers  delivered  to  me,  I  found 
some  which  contained  a  telegraphic  statement  of  the  opinion 


408  A   VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  [1882. 

I  had  expressed.     Thus  I  was,  after  all,  interviewed  at  tte 

last  moment. 

Concerning  onr  retum-voyage  I  need  say  no  more  than 

is   said  in  the  following  passages  from  a    letter  written 

on  Nov.  25,  after  our  arrival  in  England. 

"Everything  on  the  "  Grermanio  "  was  satisfactory — attendance  good,  cuisine 
admirable,  the  state-room  reserved  for  me  the  best  possible,  and  every 
attention  paid  to  my  wishes.  The  only  danger  I  ran  was  that  resulting 
from  the  kindness  of  American  friends.  When  I  got  down  to  my  state-room 
I  found  that  their  hospitalities  had  not  ceased,  but  were  pursuing  me  out 
into  the  Atlantic  I  There  were  presents  of  flowers,  fruit,  wine,  brandy, 
oysters,  in  quantities  beyond  the  possibility  of  consumption.  So  that  joined 
with  the  excellent  fare  of  the  "  Germanic,"  there  resulted  some  risk  of 
excess.  I  was  reminded  by  antithesis  of  the  title  of  a  book  published  some 
time  ago.  Plain  Living  and  High  Thinking;  for  high  living  and  plain 
thinking  would  fitly  have  described  my  regimen.  However,  if  the  ocean 
would  have  continued  its  good  behaviour  to  the  last,  I  should  have  gained 
greatly  notwithstanding. " 

This  is   preceded  by   a   paragraph   which   gives   some 

subsequent  incidents  of  the  voyage. 

"  My  telegram  [from  Queenstown]  unhappily  gave  a  premature  statement  of 
results.  At  the  time  that  I  wrote  it,  in  preparation  for  the  delivery  at 
Queenstown  the  next  morning,  the  "  Germanic  "  was  rolling  so  much  in  a 
gale  that  I  had  to  hold  the  inkstand  from  sliding  ofE  the  table.  The  previous 
night  the  rolling,  though  less,  had  been  such  as  to  keep  me  awake  a  good 
part  of  the  night ;  and  the  night  which  now  followed  being  much  worse, 
(Cyclones  are  numbered  1  to  12  in  point  of  strength,  and  ours  was  a  No.  9) 
I  got  no  sleep  until  we  were  under  the  lee  of  the  Irish  coast,  about  three  or 
four  in  the  morning.  Then  the  third  night  was  worse  still.  We  were  too 
late  to  pass  the  bar  of  the  Mersey,  and,  anchoring  outside,  where  I  thought  I 
was  going  to  have  a  quiet  night,  I  got  literally  no  sleep,  in  consequence  first 
of  the  riot  kept  up  by  some  men  who  were  having  farewell  convivialities  in 
their  cabin,  and  afterwards  by  the  noises  which  went  on  nearly  all  through 
the  night  in  preparation  for  landing  in  the  morning — chiefly  raising  the 
baggage  by  machinery  just  over  my  head.  The  mischief  was  not  simply  the 
negative  mischief  of  sleeplessness,  but  the  positive  mischief  of  nervous 
irritation  and  wear  from  the  perpetual  rattle.  And  then  there  came  the 
journey  by  the  express  to  London.  It  was  an  immense  relief  to  get  home, 
and  I  was  so  delighted  I  scarcely  realized  how  much  I  was  knocked  up." 

And  then  follows  an  account  of  my  prostrate  state, 
which  I  omit.     Suffice  it  to  say  that  I  did  not  stir  out  for 


Mt.  62.]  A  VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  409 

three  days,  and  that  ten  days  passed  before  I  ventured  to 
call  on  friends. 

Thus  ended  an  expedition  which  I  ought  never  to  have 
undertaken.  Setting  out  with  the  ill-founded  hope  that 
the  journey  and  change  of  scene  would  improve  my  health, 
I  came  back  in  a  worse  state  than  I  went :  having  made 
another  step  downwards  towards  invalid  life. 


CHAPTER  LXIII. 
CONCLUSION. 

1882—89.     Mt.  62—69. 

More  than  six  years  have  passed  by  since  the  incidents 
narrated  in  the  last  chapter;  and,  were  I  to  give  an 
account  of  these  years  after  the  same  manner  as  hereto- 
fore, several  more  chapters  would  be  required. 

Of  work,  now  proceeding  very  slowly  and  with  long 
intervals  during  which  nothing  was  done,  certain  small 
results  would  have  to  be  described.  There  were  four 
articles  in  the  Contemporary  Review,  afterwards  published 
under  the  title  of  The  Man  versus  The  State.  There  was 
a  volume  on  Ecclesiastical  Institutions,  forming  Part  VI.  of 
the  Principles  of  Sociology  ;  the  separate  publication  of  the 
last  chapter  of  which  led  to  a  disagreeable  controversy. 
There  were  two  essays — or  rather  an  essay  divided  into  two 
parts — on  "  The  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution  " ;  and  two 
years  after  the  last  of  these,  came  two  short  controversial 
articles,  each  of  which  had  to  be  broken  off  in  the  middle 
from  inability  to  proceed. 

Concerning  the  chief  breaks  in  my  ordinary  routine, 
there  would  be  passages  telling  how,  in  1883,  my  good 
friend  Valentine  Smith,  finding  that  I  was  going  North 
considerably  before  the  time  he  had  fixed  for  themselves, 
sent  down  to  Ardtornish  a  staff  of  servants  for  my  sole 
benefit,  and  left  me  for  a  week  in  exclusive  possession  of 
the  place  and  its  belongings.  In  1884  would  come  the 
account  of  a  tour  through  the  west  of  Scotland,  in  which  I 


Mt.  6Q.]  conclusion.  411 

took  with  me  the  daughter  and  niece  of  my  friend  Lott : 
afterwards  joining  the  Potters  at  Summerfield,  a  new  place 
which  they  had  for  the  autumn  near  Ulverston.  And 
then,  in  the  account  of  1885,  would  have  to  be  told  how, 
after  a  fortnight  with  the  Potters  at  Stock  Park  on  the 
banks  of  Windermere,  I  visited  Dr.  Priestley  at  his  place 
on  the  Spey,  and  there,  after  walking  about  half  a  mile, 
wielding  a  salmon-rod  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  and  walking 
back,  had  to  pass  several  days  in  bed,  and  then  telegraphed 
to  my  secretary  to  fetch  me  home  :  the  journey  being  made 
with  half-a-dozen  breaks. 

Thus  was  made  a  further  great  descent  to  confirmed 
ill-health  and  incapacity. 

Passing  over  details,  it  will  suffice  to  say  that  I  gradually 
got  myself  into  a  state  in  which,  with  a  greatly  narrowed 
margin  of  strength,  I  from  time  to  time  unawares  over- 
stepped the  margin,  still  further  diminished  my  strength, 
and  had  thereafter  to  keep  within  a  still  narrower  margin ; 
and  so  on  until  an  extremely  low  stage  had  been  reached. 

After  one  of  these  disasters,  dating  from  the  private 
view  at  the  Royal  Academy  in  the  spring  of  1886,  and 
after  presently  having  to  spend  some  five  or  six  weeks 
indoors,  I  took  a  suite  of  rooms  at  Upper  Norwood,  and 
there  induced  to  join  me  as  guests  Mrs.  Bray  and  Miss 
Hennell  (George  Eliot's  great  friends)  :  the  temporary 
benefits  being  then,  as  afterwards,  quickly  undone.  De- 
pression during  a  weary  month  indoors  in  London  did 
mischief ;  and,  fearing  continuance  of  it,  I  went  down  to 
Brighton  :  travelling  then,  as  ever  since,  in  a  hammock 
slung  diagonally  in  an  invalid-carriage.  At  Brighton 
a  year  and  a  quarter  passed,  with  many  improvements 
great  and  small,  and  many  relapses  great  and  small. 
During  the  last  four  months  of  my  stay  there,  a  victoria 
with  india-rubber  tyres,  which  I  bought,  enabled  me  to 
drive  about  more  than  I  could  otherwise  have  done  :  days 


412  CONCLUSION.  [1889. 

and  -vveekSj  however,  often  passing  witliout  my  being  able 
to  use  it.  In  November  1887 1  was  induced  by  Miss  Beatrice 
Potter  to  take  rooms  in  the  same  bouse  with  tbem  at  Bourne- 
mouth, where  they  were  fixed  for  the  winter  (my  friend 
Potter  having  also  now  become  an  invalid).  The  change 
of  scene,  and  still  more  the  presence  close  at  hand  of  those 
about  whom  I  cared,  produced  a  great  effect ;  and  at  the 
end  of  January  1888,  I  returned  to  town,  frequented  the 
Athengeum  daily  for  a  month,  and  even  got  so  far  as 
playing  a  game  at  billiards.  Then,  as  usual,  came  a 
catastrophe  :  too  long  and  too  animated  a  conversation 
brought  me  down  with  a  crash,  and  I  was  unable  to 
reach  the  Athenaeum  during  the  remainder  of  the  season. 
Drives  in  the  park  close  at  hand,  extended  on  a  few 
occasions  to  the  Savile  Club,  were  all  that  I  could 
achieve  when  able  to  go  out.  The  end  of  June  found 
me  at  Dorking,  where  I  took  up  my  abode  with  my 
friend  Mr.  Grant  Allen  for  the  summer  months.  There 
rapid  advances  resulted ;  but  a  little  too  much  physical 
effort,  followed  by  a  little  too  much  mental  excitement, 
again  undid  all  the  good  done.  Improvements  and 
relapses  filled  the  time  till  the  middle  of  October,  when 
Mr.  Allen  was  obliged  to  go,  as  he  habitually  did,  to  a 
warmer  climate ;  and  I,  unable  to  move,  took  his  house  for 
the  winter.  The  five  months  passed  in  it,  more  monotonous 
even  than  the  fifteen  months  passed  at  Brighton,  were  made 
more  bearable  in  the  one  place  as  in  the  other  by  various 
friends,  who  came  to  spend  sometimes  a  few  days,  some- 
times three  weeks,  with  me;  and  especially  were  they 
relieved  by  two  children  of  my  friend  Mrs.  Cripps  {nee 
Potter),  who  in  response  to  my  inquiry — "Will  you  lend 
me  some  children  ? "  let  them  visit  me  at  Dorking,  as 
they  had  done  at  Brighton.  In  the  middle  of  March 
1889  I  got  back  to  town;  fixed  myself  at  a  quiet  hotel 
within  five  minutes  of  the  Athenaeum,  so  as  to  get  there 
with   but    a   short   drive;   was  improved   greatly  by  the 


Mt.  69.]  CONCLUSION.  413 

change;  and,  as  usual,  have,  by  adverse  occurrences, 
physical  and  mental,  again  lost  what  good  I  gained.  So 
that  now,  after  having  been  in  the  interval  much  better 
and  at  other  times  much  worse,  I  am  below  the  level  of 
three  years  ago,  when  my  invalid-life  commenced. 

Beyond  correspondence,  done  by  proxy  when  possible, 
my  sole  occupation  during  these  three  years  (save  the  two 
fragments  of  essays  above  named)  has  been  the  composi- 
tion of  this  volume — an  occupation  which,  entered  upon 
because  heavier  work,  even  in  small  quantity,  was 
impracticable,  has  proved  in  some  measure  a  solace,  by 
furnishing  subjects  of  thought  and  preventing  that  abso- 
lute vacuity  of  life  which  I  must  otherwise  have  borne. 
How  extremely  slow  has  been  the  progress  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that,  when  the  pages  of  text  have  been  duly  reduced 
by  deduction  of  extracts  &c.,  the  amount  dictated,  revised, 
and  corrected  in  proof  has  been  at  the  rate  of  a  little 
more  than  fifteen  lines  per  day — three  lines  less  than  half 
a  page. 

And  now  about  the  future  ?  I  dictate  these  lines  on  my 
69th  birthday;  and  an  invalid-life  like  mine,  due  to 
chronic  disorder  unaccompanied  by  organic  disease,  is  not 
unlikely  to  last  some  time.     What  then  shall  I  do  with  it  ? 

Shall  I,  with  such  small  energy  as  it  leaves  me,  complete, 
ifpossible,  the  first  volume  of  this  autobiography  ?  Part  II., 
giving  an  account  of  my  early  life  and  education  is  finished; 
but  Parts  III.  and  IV.,  and  V.,  covering  the  interval  between 
17  and  28,  and  occupied  chiefly  with  the  incidents  of  my 
career  as  a  civil  engineer,  remain  in  the  form  of  outline 
draft  given  to  them  when,  many  years  ago,  I  rapidly 
dictated  my  recollections  to  a  shorthand-writer.  Shall  I 
go  back  upon  this  rude  sketch,  and  elaborate  it  into  a 
readable  form  ? 

On  reflection  I  decide  against  this  course.  Occasional 
experiments  have  raised  the  hope  that  I  may,  in  a  rough  if 


414  CONCLUSION.  [1889. 

not  in  a  finished  way,  write  another  portion  of  the  Principles 
of  Ethics — the  most  important  portion,  which  I  feel  anxious 
not  to  leave  undone.  If  I  can  keep  in  check  the  tendency 
to  bestow  too  much  attention  on  the  expression  of  the 
ideas,  and  be  content  with  a  sufficiently  intelligible  pre- 
sentation of  them,  it  seems  possible  that,  at  a  slow  rate 
like  that  above  described,  I  may  execute  this  piece  of 
serious  work. 

Here,  then,  at  any  rate  for  the  present,  I  suspend  this 
narrative  of  my  life  which  has  so  long  occupied  me: 
intending  to  continue  it  only  when  I  find  it  impracticable 
to  do  anything  else. 


PART     XIII. 


CHAPTER  LXIV. 

REFLECTIONS. 

[^Written  Four  Years  Later ^ 

If  we  pass  over  that  earliest  conception  of  the  super- 
natural which  exists  among  various  uncivilized  and  semi- 
civilized  peoples,  who  believe  in  a  material  resurrection — 
who  think  the  dead  man  reappears  in  substantial  shape, 
has  to  be  fought  over  again  in  battle,  as  the  Fijians  be- 
lieve, or  gets  up  from  his  grave  at  night  and  goes  hunting, 
as  is  asserted  by  many  savages  ;  and  if  we  begin  with  the 
ghost-theory  under  that  modified  form  in  which  the  double, 
more  or  less  spiritualized,  goes  away  at  death,  returning  to 
the  body  after  a  shorter  or  longer  period ;  we  see  that  at  the 
outset  the  idea  of  a  relation  between  character  and  bodily 
structure  is  excluded.  Along  with  the  notion  of  duality 
there  grows  up  the  assumption  that  character  inheres  in 
the  ghost,  and  that  the  body  is  merely  the  ghost's  house, 
having  no  causal  relation  to  it.  This  is  the  necessary 
imphcation,  too,  of  all  the  various  doctrines  of  metem- 
psychosis. The  soul  which,  according  to  some  fonns  of 
the  doctrine,  is  condemned  to  be  encased  in  numerous 
inferior  creatures,  one  after  another,  is  manifestly  regarded 
as  independent  of  its  material  embodiment,  and  not  as  in 
any  sense  a  product  of  its  material  embodiment. 

How  far  back  may  be  traced  the  belief  that  there  exists 
a  connexion  between  mind  and  brain,  it  is  diflScult  to  say. 
It  seems  probable  that  very  early  the  phenomena  of 
idiocy  raised  the  thought  of  some  such  relation,  qualify- 

27 


418  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

ing  the  current  dualism — qualifying  it,  however,  in  an 
inconeietent  way.  For  at  a  time  when  there  was  recog- 
nized the  "narrow  forehead  of  the  fool,"  there  was  no 
assertion  of  the  logical  implication  that  a  man's  nature 
is  determined  by  his  cerebral  development.  Even  in  our 
own  day,  though  this  truth  is  recognized  in  the  scientific 
world,  and  in  a  half-and-half  way  in  the  unscientific  world, 
yet  by  most  people  it  is  asserted  in  one  breath  and 
denied  in  another.  The  same  man  who  now  speaks  con- 
temptuously of  another  as  having  no  brains,  now  contests 
the  doctrine  that  character  varies  with  brain.  Nevei-the- 
less  it  is  clear  that  some  sort  of  dependence  is  currently 
admitted. 

But  there  remains  to  be  made  a  further  admission. 
There  has  still  to  be  recognized  the  truth  that,  in  both 
amounts  and  kinds,  mental  manifestations  are  in  part  de- 
pendent on  bodily  structures.  Mind  is  not  as  deep  as  the 
brain  only,  but  is,  in  a  sense,  as  deep  as  the  viscera. 

Before  specifying  the  psycho-physical  connexions  which 
more  especially  concern  us,  let  me  name  certain  subordi- 
nate ones  not  here  in  question,  though  they  should  be 
noted. 

There  are  the  ways  in  which  perfections  and  imperfec- 
tions of  face  and  limbs  have  reactive  influences  on 
character.  Much  might  be  said  about  the  mental  efiects 
of  bodily  deformity.  One  who  knows  that  he  is  looked 
upon  by  those  around  with  disfavour,  can  scarcely  avoid 
being  in  some  measure  soured — cannot  feel  the  friendship 
for  them  which  he  might  otherwise  feel.  At  the  same 
time  his  temper  is  almost  certain  to  be  injuriously  in- 
fluenced by  the  consciousness  of  inability  to  compete 
with  others  in  sports  and  games,  and  to  obtain  those  satis- 
factions which  efficiency  brings :  envy  being  a  probable 
result.  Conversely,  the  man  of  fine  physique,  prompted 
by  proved  strength  and  skill  to  attempt  things  beyond 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS,  419 

the  powers  of  most,  and  to  gain  applause  by  success,  has 
his  mental  attitude  modified,  in  some  respects  favour- 
ably and  in  other  respects  unfavourably.  Achievements 
produce  content  with  himself  and  an  increase  of  friend- 
liness to  those  who  applaud  him ;  though,  at  the  same 
time,  he  may  be  rendered  haughty  and  unsympathetic  in 
his  other  relations. 

So  it  is  with  beauty  and  ugliness.  A  fine  face  is  a  letter 
of  recommendation  which  usually  begets  more  kindly 
treatment  from  all  than  would  else  be  experienced ;  and, 
though  a  very  ugly  face  will  draw  from  a  few  special 
attentions,  intended  to  dissipate  the  depressed  conscious- 
ness accompanying  it,  yet  in  most  cases  this  consciousness 
is  not  weakened  but  strengthened  by  others'  behaviour. 
There  is  neglect,  if  nothing  more;  and  this,  causing  a 
sense  of  social  isolation,  tends  to  repress  the  sympathies. 

It  is  true  that  the  reactive  effects  of  these  physical  traits 
on  psychical  traits  are  variable,  and  sometimes  opposite ; 
according  as  they  fall  on  one  or  another  original  nature. 
Women  show  us  that  the  possession  of  great  facial  attrac- 
tions may,  if  the  nature  is  essentially  sympathetic,  conduce 
to  increase  of  sympathetic  manifestations ;  since  the 
genial  behaviour  to  one  who  has  great  beauty  excites  in 
such  case  a  kindred  response,  and  increases  the  natural 
kindliness  of  disposition.  Conversely,  a  handsome  woman 
who  is  decidedly  egoistic  is  usually  made  worse  by  her 
handsomeness — hves  chiefly  for  admiration,  and  becomes 
more  regardless  of  others'  claims  than  she  would  else  be. 
So,  too,  great  bodily  powers  in  a  man  may,  according  to 
the  original  balance  of  his  feelings,  lead  him  to  treat  those 
of  inferior  strength  either  less  kindly  or  more  kindly  than 
he  would  have  done  were  he  not  thus  distinguished.  In 
like  manner  deformity  or  ugliness  may,  instead  of  souring 
those  characterized  by  it,  have,  in  some  cases,  a  reverse 
effect.  It  may  prompt  them  to  make  themselves  attractive 
in  other  ways  than  by  their  physical  traits. 

27* 


420  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

AU  I  wish  here  to  note  is  that,  given  an  inherited 
cerebral  structure  and  accompanying  balance  of  mental 
traits,  the  development  of  the  external  organs,  if  it  de- 
parts considerably  from  the  ordinary  standard,  makes  the 
mental  traits  different  from  those  which  the  same  brain 
would  have  yielded  had  it  been  associated  with  ordinary 
face  or  limb. 

But  now  I  pass  from  indirect  relations  to  direct  rela- 
tions. The  psycho-physical  connexions  which  I  more 
especially  refer  to,  are  those  existing  between  the  mental 
manifestations  and  what  we  distinguish  as  the  constitu- 
tion ;  meaning,  thereby,  the  sizes  and  qualities  of  the 
various  vital  organs,  and  those  peripheral  extensions  of 
them  which  take  the  forms  of  arteries  and  veins. 

Consciousness  forthwith  ceases  if  the  current  of  blood 
through  the  brain  is  stopped.  The  amounts  and  kinds  of 
the  mental  actions  constituting  consciousness  vary,  other 
things  equal,  according  to  the  rapidity,  the  quantity,  and 
the  quality,  of  the  blood-supply;  and  all  these  vary 
according  to  the  sizes  and  proportions  of  the  sundry  organs 
which  unite  in  preparing  blood  from  food,  the  organs  which 
circulate  it,  and  the  organs  which  purify  it  from  waste 
products. 

That  intellectual  and  emotional  manifestations  are 
changed  in  their  kinds  and  amounts  by  changes  among 
these  factors,  many  know,  though  few  recognize  the  im- 
plications. The  quantity  of  mental  action  shown  in 
energy  of  will  and  flow  of  spu'its  ebbs  during  the  pro- 
stration of  illness;  and  the  quality  of  mental  action  is 
altered  as  well  as  the  quantity.  Supposing  there  is 
enough  vitality  to  cause  display  of  feeling  (which  some- 
times there  is  not),  the  display  frequently  takes  the 
form  of  irritability.  We  have  daily  proof,  too,  that  the 
volume  of  emotion,  and  consequently  the  efflux  of  mus- 
cular energy,  is  diminished  by  fatigue  and  accompanying 


Mt.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  421 

fall  in  the  circulation  through  the  brain.  And  every- 
one has  seen  how  great  are  the  effects  on  the  mind  of 
medicinal  agents  which  change  the  quantity  and  quality  of 
the  cerebral  blood-supply — the  influence,  now  exhilarating, 
now  stupefying,  of  alcohol ;  the  primarily  exciting,  and 
secondarily  sedative,  results  of  opium ;  the  improved 
spiiits  which  tonics  often  produce;  and  the  lowered 
mental  energies  following  use  of  medicines  like  the 
bromide  of  potassium,  which,  persisted  in,  sometimes  causes 
extreme  depression. 

But,  if  variations  of  both  ability  and  feeling  are  caused 
by  variations  in  those  physical  processes  which  enable  the 
brain  to  act,  then  it  follows  that  permanent  differences  in 
the  sizes  and  proportions  of  the  organs  carrying  on 
those  physical  processes — differences  which  distinguish 
one  constitution  from  another — must  have  permanent 
effects  on  the  mental  manifestations,  both  intellectual 
and  moral.  Men's  characters  must  be  in  part  determined 
by  their  visceral  structures. 

Piimarily,  the  question  concerns  the  amount  of  life — the 
amount  of  that  molecular  change  from  which  results  the 
energy  expended  in  both  bodily  activities  and  mental 
activities.  The  evolution  of  this  energy  depends  on  the 
cooperation  of  sundry  vital  organs,  and  the  efficiency 
or  non-efficiency  of  each  one  affects  all  the  others  and 
affects  the  total  result :  the  brain  being  implicated  alike  as 
a  recipient  of  more  or  less  blood  which  is  more  or  less  fit 
in  quality,  and  as  being  also  a  generator  of  nerve-force 
which  influences  the  actions  of  the  viscera.  Let  us  look 
at  the  three  sets  of  visceral  factors  separately. 

First  must  be  named  the  structures  constituting  the 
alimentary  system,  which  may  severally  be  well  or  ill 
developed.  There  may  be  inability  to  deal  with  an  ade- 
quate quantity  of  food,  or  there  may  be  slovenly  digestion, 
having  the  effect  that  much  of  the  food  taken  in  is  thrown 


422  REFLECTIONS.  [1893, 

away — unmasticated  lumps  which  the  over- taxed  stomach 
gets  into  the  habit  of  passing  on  inadequately  triturated, 
and  therefore  unutihzed.  Or,  again,  there  may  be  solvent 
secretions  of  which  some  are  unfit  in  quantity  or  quality 
or  both.  If  one  or  other  of  these  causes  necessitates  a 
deficient  amount  of  blood,  the  vital  actions,  those  of  the 
brain  included,  must,  other  things  equal,  go  on  slowly  or 
feebly  or  be  soon  checked.  It  is  true  that  the  food  eaten 
is  no  measure  of  the  nutriment  absorbed.  But,  whether 
smallness  of  the  alimentary  system  or  imperfect  action  of 
it  be  the  reason,  chronic  deficiency  of  blood  must  entail 
chronic  cerebral  inactivity,  intellectual  and  emotional. 
Conversely,  there  is  evidence  that  an  unusually  active 
digestion  may,  other  things  equal,  be  a  factor  in  unusual 
mental  energy.  Handel,  so  wonderfully  productive,  so 
marvellous  for  the  number  and  vigour  of  liis  musical  com- 
positions, may  be  named  in  illustration. 

Abundance  of  good  blood  will  not  be  followed  by 
vividness  of  thought  or  power  of  feeling,  unless  there  is 
eflScient  propulsion  of  it.  Great  cerebral  action  implies 
great  Avaste  and  rapid  repair  ;  and,  if  the  repair  does  not 
keep  pace  with  the  waste,  prostration  must  soon  result. 
If  the  slowness  of  the  blood-supply  is  temporary  the 
activity  will  soon  flag,  and  if  it  is  constitutional  there 
will  be  a  low  standard  of  mental  manifestation.  The 
emotions  especially,  which  are  relatively  costly,  will  be 
feeble ;  and  this  will  result  in  lack  of  energy  and  want  of 
will.  When,  at  the  one  extreme,  we  see  that  stoppage  of 
the  blood-supply  is  immediately  followed  by  insensibility, 
and,  at  the  other  extreme,  see  that  exalting  the  blood- 
supply  by  a  medicinal  agent  which  raises  the  power  of  the 
heart,  produces  elation  of  feeling  and  increase  of  vigour,  it 
becomes  manifest  that  permanent  difierences  between  the 
efficiencies  of  the  structures  which  carry  on  circulation,  must 
cause  permanent  difierences  between  the  amounts  of 
mental  manifestation.    Not  only  is  power  of  heart  a  factor 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  423 

in  power  of  mind,  but  quality  of  the  arteries  is  also  a 
factor.  Those  in  whom  the  blood-vessels,  inadequately 
contractile,  soon  yield  imder  stress,  have  not  the  untiring 
energy  of  those  whose  blood-vessels  can  bear  persistent 
action  without  yielding. 

And  then,  beyond  quantity  of  blood  and  circulation  of 
blood,  comes  the  further  factor — purification  of  blood. 
Professor  Michael  Foster  has  recently  been  enlarging  on 
the  truth  that  fatigue  is  chiefly  caused  by  the  accumula- 
tion of  waste  products  in  the  system.  The  depurating 
organs  fail  to  get  rid  of  these  with  adequate  speed ;  and 
the  blood  becomes  fuller  than  usual  of  substances  which, 
instead  of  aiding  the  functions,  tend  to  arrest  them.  A 
familiar  example  is  the  effect  produced  by  great  exertion 
in  running.  This  increases  the  carbonic  acid  in  the  blood 
more  rapidly  than  it  can  be  ehminated  by  the  lungs.  The 
being  "  out  of  breath,"  as  we  say,  and  the  need  for  tem- 
porary desistance,  show  us  how  presence  of  an  overcharge 
of  a  poisonous  substance  impedes  the  vital  actions.  A 
corollary  is  that  those  in  whom  the  lungs  are  iU-developed 
will  have  a  constitutionally  lower  activity,  bodily  or 
mental,  or  both.  Similarly,  deficient  size  of  the  kidneys, 
entailing  imperfect  excretion  of  the  waste  products  they 
get  rid  of,  and  consequent  accumulation  of  them  in  the 
blood,  causes  hindrance  to  nervous  action ;  as  is  implied  by 
the  fact  that  stoppage  of  the  excretion  produces  dimness 
of  sight,  at  other  times  deafness,  and,  when  extreme,  brings 
on  drowsiness,  torpor,  and  coma.  So,  too,  it  is  if  the  Kver 
fails  in  its  action.  Lowness  of  spirits,  drowsiness,  and 
torpor,  are  among  the  symptoms  of  liver-derangement ; 
and  these  are  aspects  of  diminished  nervous  energy.  The 
implication  is,  then,  that  those  who  have  by  nature  livers 
or  kidneys  below  the  average  in  development,  are  to 
that  extent  likely  to  be  characterized  by  some  failure 
in  the  genesis  of  nerve-force,  and  by  consequent  lack  of 
animation. 


m  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

Details  apart,  however,  the  general  conclusion  is  unde- 
niable. If  by  skin,  lungs,  liver,  and  kidneys,  waste-pro- 
ducts of  the  muscular,  nervous,  and  other  activities  are 
excreted — if  the  existence  of  these  depurating  structures 
impUes  that,  unless  by  tlieir  agency  effete  matters  are  got 
rid  of,  life  must  cease ;  it  is  a  corollary  that  life  must  be 
impeded  if  one  or  other  of  them  is  deficient  in  size  or 
quality.  And  it  follows  that  the  brain,  depending  for  its 
action  on  a  due  supply  of  blood  duly  purified,  must  be 
affected  in  its  efficiency  by  every  variation  in  the  de- 
velopment of  this  or  that  excreting  organ. 

But  now  we  come  to  the  truth  of  chief  significance. 
Not  the  quantity  of  mind  only,  but  the  quality  of  mind 
also,  is  in  part  determined  by  these  psycho-physical  con- 
nexions. Amount  and  structure  of  brain  being  the  same, 
not  only  may  the  totality  of  feelings  and  thoughts  be 
greater  or  less  according  as  this  or  that  viscus  is  well  or 
ill  developed,  but  the  feelings  and  thoughts  may  also  be 
favourably  or  unfavourably  modified  in  their  kinds.  Dif- 
ference of  disposition  is  caused  both  directly  and  indirectly. 

Directly,  the  effect  of  imperfect  supply  of  blood  to  the 
brain  is  shown  in  reluctance  to  do  many  things  which 
require  energy,  and  in  consequent  failure  of  duty  towards 
self  and  others.  One  of  the  absurdities  current  among 
both  cultured  and  uncultured  is  that  it  is  as  easy  for  one 
man  to  be  active  as  for  another.  If  A  is  diligent  and  B 
idle,  the  condemnation  of  B  always  takes  for  granted  that 
the  cost  of  effort  is  the  same  to  A  and  B.  Though  every- 
one knows  that  during  the  prostration  of  illness,  or  before 
good  health  has  been  recovered,  it  is  a  great  trial  to  make 
even  a  small  exertion,  yet  scarcely  any  draw  the  inference 
that  the  lack  of  energy,  temporarily  existing  in  such  cases, 
exists  permanently  in  other  cases,  and  throughout  Hfe 
makes  activity  more  or  less  difficult.  Character  is  affected 
in  sundry  ways.     Often  the  individual  thus  made  inert  by 


Ml.  73.3  EEFLECTIONS.  425 

constitution,  cannot  be  at  the  trouble  of  doing  needful 
things  for  his  own  benefit,  but  persistently  submits  to  a 
serious  inconvenience  rather  than  take  measures  to  remove 
it.  And  if  even  when  personal  pains  and  pleasures  are  in 
question  he  will  not  exert  himself,  naturally  he  is  reluctant 
to  exert  himself  when  the  pains  and  pleasures  of  others 
are  in  question.  A,  who  is  constitutionally  active,  takes 
trouble  in  doing  things  for  others'  gratifications,  and  is 
credited  as  essentially  altruistic;  while  B,  though  his 
absence  of  eflFort  for  others  is  due  to  constitutional  in- 
activity, and  not  to  want  of  sympathy  with  them,  is 
thought  essentially  egoistic.  Difierences  hence  resulting 
may  affect  even  the  discharge  of  equitable  obhgations; 
for  while  to  the  man  of  restless  energy  the  liquidation  of  a 
claim  may  present  no  obstacle,  it  may  present  a  great 
obstacle  to  an  equally  conscientious  man  of  inert  nature. 
But  now,  beyond  these  quaUtative  mental  differences 
which  arise  directly  from  quantitative  differences  of  mental 
energy,  there  are  other  qualitative  differences  arising  in- 
directly— differences  of  disposition  seemingly  consequent 
on  inherited  differences  of  brain,  but  really  consequent  on 
differences  between  the  blood-supplies  to  the  brain.  For 
the  higher  emotions  are  physiologically  more  expensive 
than  the  lower;  and,  when  the  blood-supply  is  deficient, 
fail  before  the  lower  do.  In  the  Princi'ples  of  Psychology, 
§§  249 — 261,  I  have  set  down  various  corollaries  from 
the  truth  that  from  cerebral  actions  of  simple  kinds, 
which  are  directly  related  to  maintenance  of  life,  and  are, 
therefore,  essentially  egoistic,  we  rise  by  successive  com- 
plications to  those  highest  governing  cerebral  actions 
which,  most  involved  in  their  compositions,  arise  from  less 
ftilly  organized  structures,  the  actions  of  which  are  most 
b'able  to  fail.  Ancient  and  simple  nervous  connexions, 
and  accompanying  mental  cohesions,  which  are  primary 
and  deep  down  in  the  nature,  are  more  persistent  than 
those  superposed  ones  which  are  relatively  modem  and 


426  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

complex ;  and,  consequently,  when  the  tide  of  blood  ebbs, 
these  last  become  feeble  or  disappear  while  the  first  re- 
main :  the  result  being  that  the  surviving  egoistic  feel- 
ings are  no  longer  kept  in  check  by  altruistic  feelings. 
Examples  of  this  causation  in  its  temporary  form  are 
familiar.  When  a  child  who  is  ordinai-ily  amiable  becomes 
pettish  and  fretful,  the  medical  man  suspects  that  the 
aUm«ntary  canal  is  not  doing  its  duty,  and  finds  that, 
the  cause  of  failing  nutrition  having  been  removed,  the 
mental  perversions  disappear.  So,  too,  in  adult  life  the 
visceral  derangements  produced  by  over-work  and  anxiety 
are  often  followed  by  ill-temper.  Even  the  recognized 
differences  between  irritability  before  dinner  and  equanim- 
ity (sometimes  joined  with  generosity)  after  dinner,  suffice 
to  show  that,  when  flagging  pulsation  and  impoverished 
blood  are  exchanged  for  vigorous  pulsation  and  en- 
riched blood,  there  results  that  change  in  the  balance  of 
the  emotions  which  constitutes  a  moral  change.  And,  if 
there  are  such  temporary  mental  unlikenesses  due  to  tem- 
porary physiological  causes,  there  must  be  analogous  per- 
manent mental  unlikenesses  due  to  permanent  physiological 
causes.  It  becomes  clear  that  in  this  respect,  as  in  other 
respects,  the  mind  is  as  deep  as  the  viscera. 

These  general  conclusions  are  intended  to  introduce 
certain  special  conclusions.  Often  it  has  been  a  question 
with  me  why,  in  certain  respects,  I  contrast  unfavourably 
with  both  father  and  mother.  Probably  in  chief  measure 
the  cause  is  of  the  kind  just  explained — a  physiological 
cause.  I  have  never  shown  the  unfailing  diligence  which 
was  common  to  them ;  and  there  has  not  been  displayed 
by  me  as  great  an  amount  of  altruistic  feeling  as  was  dis- 
played by  both.  One  apparent  reason  is  that  the  cerebral 
circulation  has,  by  certain  bodily  traits,  been  throughout 
Hfe  rendered  less  vigorous  than  it  should  be. 

Besides  his  large  brain,  my  father,  as  a  part  of  his  fine 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  427 

physique,  had  a  large  chest ;  and,  as  a  result  of  well- 
developed  thoracic  viscera,  had  an  abundant  supply  of 
energy.  I  have  heard  him  say  that  he  looked  back  with 
astonishment  at  the  work  he  did  when  a  young  man ;  and 
even  during  later  life,  though  his  activity  was  not  judi- 
ciously directed,  he  was  always  busy  about  something. 
In  physique  my  mother  was  not  of  so  fine  a  type,  and 
the  constitution,  though  fairly  well  balanced,  was  by  no 
means  so  vigorous  :  the  development  of  the  thorax  being 
rather  below  than  above  the  average  standard.  But 
she  had  an  overwhelming  sense  of  duty,  and,  through- 
out life,  was  daily  forced  by  it  to  expend  energy  in  excess 
of  the  normal  amount ;  so  that,  spite  of  all  protests,  she 
eventually  brought  herself  to  a  state  of  chronic  prostra- 
tion. This  overwhelming  sense  of  duty  was,  doubtless,  in 
its  origin  religious :  the  moral  feelings,  natm-ally  decided, 
were  reinforced  by  the  religious  feeling.  But  in  me  the 
cooperative  factors  were  not  the  same  as  in  either.  The 
visceral  constitution  was  maternal  rather  than  paternal. 
Traits  of  bony  structure  imply  that  the  thoracic  viscera 
are  not  so  well  developed  as  they  were  in  my  father ;  and 
that,  as  a  consequence,  the  circulation  and  aeration  have 
not  been  constitutionally  so  good. 

As  far  back  as  I  can  remember  there  have  been  signs 
that  the  periphery  of  the  vascular  system  has  not  been 
well  filled.  Except  in  hot  weather,  or  after  walking 
several  miles,  the  ends  of  my  fingers  have  been  inade- 
quately distended ;  coldness  of  the  hands  has  been  an  or- 
dinary trait ;  and  relative  dryness  of  the  skin  has  also 
shown  deficient  blood-supply  at  the  surface  :  an  obvious 
imph cation  being  that  in  the  brain  also,  the  blood- supply, 
when  not  increased  by  excitement,  has  been  below  par. 
It  is  true  that  my  extraordinary  feat  in  walking  when  a 
boy  of  13,  seems  to  prove  that  there  was  at  that  time  no 
deficiency  in  either  heart-power  or  lung-power;  and,  if 
we  pass  over  the  evidence  from  thoracic  development,  it 


428  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

miglit  be  inferred  that  the  damage  done  by  this  enormous 
overtax  on  a  half-finished  body,  was  the  primary  cause  of 
this  defective  function  throughout  after  life.  Certainly  it 
seems  likely  to  have  been  a  part  cause.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  however,  there  is  undeniable  evidence  that,  either 
from  deficient  propulsive  power  or  from  some  chronic 
constriction  of  the  arterioles,  the  remoter  plexuses  of 
blood-vessels  everywhere  have  commonly  not  been  duly 
charged.  Hence  a  somewhat  deficient  genesis  of  energy, 
or,  at  any  rate,  a  genesis  of  energy  not  as  great  as  that 
displayed  in  my  father. 

The  same  cause  has  probably  operated  in  produciag 
that  further  moral  difference  above  indicated.  In  respect 
of  negative  beneficence  the  likeness  to  both  father  and 
mother  is  fairly  well  marked.  In  early  days  there  was  none 
of  that  tendency  towards  cruelty  which  boys  so  commonly 
display,  and,  throughout  later  life,  the  infliction  of  pain  or 
the  witnessing  of  pain  inflicted,  has  ever  been  repugnant ; 
save,  indeed,  under  the  excitement  of  argument,  when  I 
have  usually  shown  but  Uttle  regard  for  the  feelings  of 
opponents.  But  in  the  kind  of  beneficence  distinguishable 
as  positive — that  which  impHes  not  passivity  but  activity — 
I  perceive  a  decided  difference  between  myself  and  my 
parents.  My  father  especially,  with  his  abundant  energy, 
was  active  on  behalf  of  others — doing  things  which  would 
either  give  them  pleasure  or  be  indirectly  beneficial.  But 
my  greater  inertia,  caused  in  the  way  shown,  has  tended 
to  hinder  such  actions.  The  incentives  to  them  have  been 
commonly  neutralized  by  dislike  to  taldng  the  requisite 
trouble.  This  initial  difference  has  doubtless  originated  a 
difference  of  mental  tendency ;  for,  where  the  yielding  to 
sympathetic  promptings  has  commenced,  there  is  estab- 
lished the  habit  of  so  yielding,  and,  conversely,  under 
opposite  conditions  there  arises  the  habit  of  not  yielding. 
In  respect  to  one  kind  of  altruistic  action,  however,  I 
recognize  no  deficiency.    The  sentiment  of  egoistic  justice 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  429 

is  strong  in  me,  and  sympathetic  excitement  of  it  produces 
a  strong  sentiment  of  altruistic  justice.  Consequently, 
there  is  not  only  a  readiness  to  join  others  in  opposition  to 
political  injustice,  but  a  readiness  to  take  up  the  causes 
of  individuals  unjustly  dealt  with.  Abundant  energy  is 
furnished  in  such  cases  by  the  anger  which  the  sight  of 
aggression  generates  in  me. 

A  cooperative  cause  may  be  named  as  having  accen- 
tuated the  contrast  between  the  amount  of  the  wish  to  avoid 
giving  pain  and  the  amount  of  the  wish  to  give  pleasure. 
From  time  to  time  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  in  families 
brought  up  from  generation  to  generation  ascetically,  and 
acting  up  to  the  belief  that  the  pursuit  of  pleasure  is 
wrong,  it  happens  that  while  there  is  a  frequent  witness- 
ing of  suffering,  and  familiarity  with  the  natural  language 
of  suffering,  and  therefore  ability  to  sympathize  with 
suffering,  there  is  a  relatively  infrequent  witnessing  of 
pleasure,  and  an  unfamiliarity  with  the  natural  language 
of  pleasure,  and  consequently  a  relative  inability  to  sym- 
pathize with  pleasure.  And,  if  there  thus  results  a  relative 
inabihty  to  sympathize  with  pleasure,  the  temptation  to 
give  pleasure  must  be  less  than  usual,  at  the  same  time  that 
the  desire  to  avoid  giving  pain  may  be  as  great  as  usual 
or  greater.  Having  in  my  own  case  recognized  this  as  a 
possible  cause  of  the  difference,  or  at  least  a  cooperative 
cause,  I  was  some  years  ago  struck  by  a  parallel  inference 
drawn  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Martineau,  a  propos  of  his  sister,  in 
The  Daily  News  for  December  30,  1884  : — 

"  That  in  our  early  home  the  parents  were  so  *  cruel '  as  *  to  starve 
the  emotions  in '  their  children  by  '  lack  of  tenderness  in  manner  or 
feeling'  (3  4),  I  can  in  no  wise  admit  as  a  characteristic  of  that  par- 
ticular household,  though  the  allegation  would  have  a  certain  amount 
of  truth  if  turned  into  a  general  description  of  the  prevailing  habit 
of  the  time.  In  old  Nonconformist  families  especially,  the  Puritan 
tradition,  and  the  reticence  of  a  persecuted  race,  had  left  their  austere 
impress  upon  speech  and  demeanour  unused  to  be  free  ;  so  that  in 
domestic  and  social  life  there  was  enforced,  as  a  condition  of  decorum, 


430  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

a  retenue  of  language  and  deportment  strongly  contrasting  with  our 
modem  effusiveness." 

An  influence  of  this  kind  was  certainly  at  work  both  in 
the  Spencer  family  and  in  the  Holmes  family,  and  may 
have  had  its  effect  on  me.  But  I  here  name  it  chiefly 
with  a  view  to  the  general  implication  that  asceticism 
tends  to  produce  inability  to  sympathize  with  others' 
pleasures,  and  therefore  a  lack  of  desire  to  give  them 
pleasures. 

Leaving  these  psycho-physical  interpretations  of  charac- 
ter, I  pass  now  to  those  which  are  more  especially  psychical 
— those  which  depend  on  structure  of  brain  rather  than  on 
the  pressure  at  which  the  brain  is  worked.  For,  let  me 
remark  in  passing,  there  are  two  distinguishable  sources 
of  mental  power.  It  may  result  from  an  ordinary  brain 
worked  at  unusually  high  pressure,  or  from  a  brain  which, 
in  some  respects  not  ordinary,  is  worked  at  medium  pres- 
sure or  even  low  pressure :  the  one  giving  manifestations 
of  great  intensity  but  not  special  in  their  kinds,  the  other 
giving  special  manifestations.  It  is  with  the  last  that  we 
are  here  concerned. 

Whatever  specialities  of  character  and  faculty  in  me 
are  due  to  inheritance,  are  inherited  from  my  father. 
Between  my  mother's  mind  and  my  own  I  see  scarcely 
any  resemblances,  emotional  or  intellectual.  She  was 
very  patient ;  I  am  very  impatient.  She  was  tolerant  of 
pain,  bodily  or  mental ;  I  am  intolerant  of  it.  She  was 
little  given  to  finding  fault  with  others;  I  am  greatly 
given  to  it.  She  was  submissive;  I  am  the  reverse  of 
submissive.  So,  too,  in  respect  of  intellectual  faculties,  I 
can  perceive  no  trait  common  to  us ;  unless  it  be  a  certain 
greater  calmness  of  judgment  than  was  shown  by  my 
father;  for  my  father's  vivid  representative  faculty  was 
apt  to  play  him  false.  Not  only,  however,  in  the  moral 
characters  just  named  am  I  like  my  father,  but  such  intel- 


^T.  73.]  KEFLECTIONS.  431 

lectual  characters  as  are  peculiar  are  derived  from  him. 
We  will  look  first  at  three  fimdamental  ones. 

Though  an  intuition  is  not  inheritable,  the  capacity  for 
an  intuition  is,  and  I  inherited  an  unusual  capacity  for  the 
intuition  of  cause.  Already  I  have  commented  on  the 
curious  display  of  it  when,  as  a  boy  of  thirteen,  I  called  in 
question  the  dictum  of  Dr.  Arnott,  endorsed  by  my  uncle 
Thomas,  respecting  inertia.  Without  instruction,  and  with- 
out special  thought,  I  had  reached  a  truer  insight  into 
ultimate  dynamical  relations  than  those  who  were  much 
older  and  far  better  cultured.  Always  my  father  had 
been  prone  to  inquiries  about  causes.  The  habit  ol 
making  them  implied  that  the  consciousness  of  causation 
was  dominant  in  him ;  and  often  during  my  boyhood,  as  I 
have  before  said,  he  put  to  me  questions  about  causes : 
not,  however,  questions  of  the  fundamental  kind  just 
referred  to.  But  the  aptitude  for  conceiving  causes, 
primarily  inherited,  had  been  rendered  by  practice  un- 
usually strong;  and  there  had  been  produced  a  latent 
readiness  to  grasp  the  abstract  necessity  of  causal  rela- 
tions. This  has  been  shown  in  my  course  of  thought 
throughout  Ufe.  Though  my  conclusions  have  usually 
been  reached  inductively,  yet  I  have  never  been  satisfied 
without  finding  how  they  could  be  reached  deductively. 
Alike  in  various  detached  essays  and  in  that  general 
doctrine  which  has  chiefly  occupied  me,  this  fact  is  con- 
spicuous; and  it  is  equally  conspicuous  in  my  political 
thinking,  which  is  pervaded  by  an  unconquerable  belief 
in  the  efiects  of  general  causes  working  generation  after 
generation :  exemplified,  for  instance,  in  my  often  repeated 
prophecy  that  a  nation  which  fosters  its  good-for-nothings 
will  end  by  becoming  a  good-for-nothing  nation. 

Of  the  two  further  intellectual  traits  inherited  from  my 
father,  the  first  to  be  named  is  the  synthetic  tendency. 
That  this  was  dominant  in  him  is  proved  by  his  little 
work  entitled  Inventional  Geometry y  containing  a  multitude 


432  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

of  problems  to  be  solved  by  synthetic  processes  which 
pupils  are  to  discover.  Both  the  tendency  in  himself  and 
the  encouragement  of  the  tendency  in  me,  were  seen 
when,  during  my  youth,  he  led  me  through  the  suc- 
cessively more  compUcated  problems  in  Perspective :  re- 
quiring me  to  find  out  the  modes  of  solving  them.  It 
scarcely  needs  saying  that  the  synthetic  tendency  has 
been  conspicuous  in  all  I  have  done  from  the  beginning. 
Social  Statics  set  out  with  a  fundamental  principle,  and 
built  upon  it  a  coherent  body  of  conclusions.  My  first 
essay,  published  not  long  after — "  A  Theory  of  Popidation, 
deduced  fi-om  the  general  Law  of  Animal  Fertility" — 
proved  by  its  title  that  its  argument  was  synthetic,  while 
the  same  trait,  manifested  in  many  subsequently-written 
essays,  clearly  declared  itself  in  the  organization  of  the 
series  of  works  which  I  commenced  in  1860,  and  finally 
took  an  overt  form  in  the  title  of  that  series. 

But  the  synthetic  tendency  has  in  me  been  accompanied 
by  an  almost  equal  analytic  tendency.  Though  in  my 
father's  mind  this  was  less  manifest,  it  nevertheless  existed 
to  a  greater  extent  than  it  exists  in  most  minds.  Indeed, 
his  habit  of  seeking  for  causes  implied  it ;  since  the  detec- 
tion of  a  cause  cannot  be  achieved  without  analysis.  But 
in  him  the  analytic  tendency,  like  the  synthetic  tendency, 
was  relatively  Hmited  in  its  range.  He  occupied  himself 
much  more  with  the  concrete,  and  much  less  with  the 
abstract,  than  it  became  my  habit  to  do.  While  the 
analytic  tendency  was  more  pronounced  in  me,  it  also 
displayed  itself  in  a  wider  sphere.  There  was  an  early 
illustration  of  it  in  the  progress  fi-om  the  views  set  forth 
in  The  Proper  Sphere  of  Government  to  those  set  forth  in 
Social  Statics.  The  last  work  grew  out  of  the  first  in 
consequence  of  an  inquiry  for  the  common  origin  of  the 
conclusions  which  the  first  set  forth  separately ;  and  the 
analysis  which  disclosed  the  common  principle  involved  in 
them,  preceded  the  synthesis  which  constituted  the  body 


iEx.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  ;         433 

of  the  work.  Not  long  after,  an  essay  on  "  The  Universal 
Postulate"  furnished  a  more  pronounced  illustration  of 
the  analytic  tendency;  for  the  pmpose  of  that  essay  was 
to  identify  the  common  character  of  aU  those  beliefs,  es- 
tablished immediately  by  perception  or  mediately  by 
reason,  which  we  regard  as  having  absolute  validity.  So, 
a  few  years  later,  with  the  Theory  of  Evolution  at  large. 
It  was  not  enough  that  the  general  transformation  should 
be  shown  to  arise  from  the  instabihty  of  the  homogen- 
eous and  the  multiplication  of  eflfects.  It  was  needful 
that  these  also  should  be  analyzed  and  shown  to  be  corol- 
laries from  the  persistence  of  force — a  truth  defying 
further  analysis.  So  that,  both  subjectively  and  objec- 
tively, the  desire  to  build  up  was  accompanied  by  an 
almost  equal  desire  to  delve  down  to  the  deepest  acces- 
sible truth,  which  should  serve  as  an  unshakable  founda- 
tion. 

One  further  cardinal  trait,  which  is  in  a  sense  a  result 
of  the  preceding  traits,  has  to  be  named — the  ability  to 
discern  inconspicuous  analogies.  Of  course,  in  the  process 
of  taking  to  pieces  some  group  of  phenomena,  there  come 
into  view  those  factors  which  are  deep-seated  and  neces- 
sary, as  distinguished  from  those  which  are  superficial  and 
not  necessary.  So,  too,  is  it  in  the  process  of  bmlding  up. 
A  coherent  fabric  of  conclusions  cannot  be  framed  unless 
there  is  a  recognition  of  primary  and  unchangeable  con- 
nexions, as  distinguished  from  secondary  and  changeable 
ones.  Evidently,  then,  the  habit  of  ignoring  the  variable 
outer  components  and  relations,  and  looking  for  the  in- 
variable inner  components  and  relations,  facihtates  the 
perception  of  likeness  between  things  which  externally 
are  quite  unlike — perhaps  so  utterly  imlike  that,  by  an 
unanalytical  intelligence,  they  cannot  be  conceived  to 
have  any  resemblance  whatever.  An  example  is  furnished 
by  the  analogy  between  a  social  organism  and  an  individual 
organism.     A  vague  recognition  of  this  analogy  was  seen 

2S 


434  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

in  an  article  named  in  Chapter  XVIII  as  written  in  1844,  in 
which,  commenting  on  the  propagation  of  the  evil  con- 
sequences of  dishonesty  among  citizens,  I  argued  that  a 
society  has  a  common  life  which  implicates  all  its  in- 
dividuals. This  preparedness  for  recognizing  a  definite 
analogy  presently  had  its  effect.  When  writing  Social 
Statics,  there  was  made  the  statement  that  social  organi- 
zations and  individual  organizations  are  similar  in  their 
phases  of  development.  It  was  pointed  out  that  a 
low  society,  like  a  low  animal,  is  made  up  of  hke  parts 
performing  like  functions ;  whereas,  as  fast  as  societies  and 
organisms  become  more  highly  evolved,  they  severally 
become  composed  of  unlike  parts  performing  unlike  func- 
tions. Evidently  this  was  a  paralleHsm  recognized  only 
by  ignoring  all  concrete  characters  of  the  parts  and 
thinking  only  of  the  essential  relations  among  the  parts — 
an  analytical  process  of  stripping  oflT  whatever  the  two 
things  had  not  in  common.  And  then,  when  the  naked- 
ness of  the  essential  relations  in  each  permitted  comparison 
of  them,  it  became  manifest  that  the  fundamental  analogy 
was  determined  by  the  operation  of  the  same  cause  in 
each :  this  cause  being  the  mutual  dependence  of  parts. 
It  became  manifest  that  it  is  the  mutual  dependence  of 
parts  which  constitutes  either  the  one  or  the  other  a  living 
aggregate,  and  that  it  is  because  of  the  increasing  mutual 
dependence  of  parts,  and  consequent  increasing  unity  and 
vitality  of  the  aggregate,  that  there  is  in  both  cases 
shown  an  advance  from  a  homogeneous  stnicture  to  a 
heterogeneous  structure. 

To  the  co-operation  of  these  intellectual  tendencies,  the 
first  three  of  which  were  exhibited  in  my  father,  and 
apparently  transmitted  with  increase,  and  the  last  of 
which,  a  derivative  result  of  the  others,  took  in  me  an 
activity  not  apparent  in  him — to  these  tendencies,  I  say, 
working  together  throughout  ^viJer  rauges  of  thought. 


JEt.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  435 

must  be    in   large  measure  ascribed  whatever  I   have 
done. 

One  further  intellectual  trait,  in  part  derived  from  the 
foregoing  and  in  part  of  more  general  nature,  must  be  set 
down.  Already  there  has  been  named  the  fact  that  in 
boyhood  and  youth  I  was  much  given  to  castle-building : 
not  differing  from  other  young  people  in  respect  of  the 
tendency,  but  only  in  respect  of  its  degree.  The  absorption 
which,  as  indicated  in  Chapter  V.  went  to  the  extent  of 
talking  to  myself  as  I  walked  through  the  streets,  and  the 
love  of  picturing  adventures,  nightly  indulged  in,  which,  on 
awaking,  often  made  me  vexed  because  I  had  gone  to  sleep 
before  having  had  my  fill,  proved  that  ideal  representa- 
tion was  habitual ;  and  continuance  of  it  under  other  forms 
in  later  life  was  shown  by  the  fact,  named  in  Chapter 
XXXV,  that  when  out  of  doors  I  sometimes  passed  those 
living  in  the  same  house  with  me  without  knowing  that  I 
had  seen  them,  though  I  looked  them  in  the  face.  This 
activity  of  imagination,  not  greater  than  in  many  others, 
but  in  me  specialized  by  the  synthetic  tendency,  has  had 
an  effect  which  at  first  sight  seems  anomalous. 

Probably  many  readers  of  the  foregoing  pages  will  have 
been  struck  by  the  heterogeneity  in  my  mental  occupa- 
tions and  objects  of  interest.  Fully  to  perceive  how 
apparently  unlike  one  another  these  have  been,  it  is  re- 
quisite to  bring  into  juxta-position  sundry  of  the  subjects 
of  speculation  occupying  my  later  life  with  the  appliances 
and  improvements  devised  during  my  earlier  life.  The 
products  of  mental  action  are  then  seen  to  range  fi:om  a 
doctrine  of  State-functions  to  a  levelling-staff ;  from  the 
genesis  of  religious  ideas  to  a  watch  escapement;  from 
the  circulation  in  plants  to  an  invalid  bed  ;  from  the  law 
of  organic  symmetry  to  planing  machinery ;  from  principles 
of  ethics  to  a  velocimeter ;  from  a  metaphysical  doctrine 


28' 


436  REFLECTIONS.  [1893, 

to  a  binding-pin ;  from  a  classification  of  the  sciences  to 
an  improved  fishing-rod  joint ;  from  the  general  Law  oi 
Evolution  to  a  better  mode  of  dressing  artificial  flies.* 

There  is  something  almost  ludicrous  in  this  contrast 
between  the  large  and  the  small,  the  important  and  the 
trivial ;  but,  as  facts  in  that  natural  history  of  myself 
which  I  have  aimed  to  give,  it  is  fit  that  they  should  be 
indicated.  The  almost  equal  proclivities  towards  analysis 
and  synthesis  above  pointed  out,  seem  to  be  paralleled  by 
almost  equal  proclivities  to  the  abstract  and  the  concrete, 
the  general  and  the  special ;  or,  otherwise  regarded,  equal 
proclivities  to  the  theoretical  and  the  practical.  But  for 
every  interest  in  either  the  theoretical  or  the  practical,  a 
requisite  condition  has  been — ^the  opportunity  offered  for 
something  new.  And  here  may  be  perceived  the  trait  which 
unites  the  extremely  unlike  products  of  mental  action  ex- 
emplified above.  They  have  one  and  all  afforded  scope  for 
constructive  imagination.  Evidently  constructive  imagin- 
ation finds  a  sphere  for  activity  alike  in  an  invention  and 
in  a  theory.  Lideed,  when  we  put  the  two  together,  we 
are  at  once  shown  the  kinship ;  since  every  invention  is  a 
theory  before  it  is  reduced  to  a  material  form. 

Li  this,  as  in  so  many  other  traits,  I  recognize  inheri- 
tance from  my  father :  in  some  directions  with  increase, 
and  in  others  without.  His  constructive  imagination  was 
shown  not  only  by  his  Inventional  Geometry ^  but  by  sundry 
small  inventions ;  and  it  was  shown  much  more  conspicu- 
ously by  his  Lucid  Shorthand,  in  which  it  appears  under 
both  the  analytic  and  the  synthetic  aspects.  It  was 
shown,  too,  by  an  imusual  ability  for  solving  puzzles, 
alike  of  the  mental  and  of  the  mechanical  kinds.  In  this 
I  could  not  compare  with  him ;  but  in  both  mechanical 
inventions  and  in  the  union  of  philosophical  analysis  and 
synthesis,  this  applied  form  of  constructive  imagination 
appears  to  have  been  fmther  developed  while  transmitted. 

•  See  Dr.  E.  Hamilton's  RecoUectiont  of  Fly  Fishing,  p.  92. 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  437 

And  here  this  last  remark  introduces  a  group  of  facts  at 
once  striking  and  instructive. 

When  discussing  the  question  whether  the  effects  of  use 
and  disuse  are  inherited,  I  have  sometimes  been  tempted 
to  cite  evidence  furnished  by  sundry  of  my  own  traits ; 
but  have  refrained  because  of  dislike  to  making  public 
statements  about  them.  Here,  however,  as  included  in  an 
autobiography,  I  may  fitly  set  down  these  instances  of 
modifications,  mental  and  bodily,  resulting  from  speci- 
alities of  habit  in  ancestors. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  I  have  an  unusual  faculty  of 
exposition — set  forth  my  data  and  reasonings  and  con- 
clusions with  a  clearness  and  coherence  not  common. 
Whence  this  faculty  ?  My  grandfather  passed  all  his  life 
in  teaching,  and  my  father,  too,  passed  all  his  Hfe  in 
teaching.  Teaching  is,  in  large  measure,  a  process  of 
exposition.  Hour  after  hour,  day  after  day,  the  master  of 
a  school,  or  one  who  gives  private  lessons,  spends  time  in 
explaining.  If  he  is  worth  his  salt,  he  does  not  simply 
listen  to  rote-learnt  lessons,  but  takes  care  that  his  pupils 
understand  what  they  are  learning;  and,  to  this  end, 
either  solves  their  difficulties  for  them,  or,  much  better, 
puts  them  in  the  way  of  solving  them  by  making  them 
comprehend  the  principles  on  which  solutions  depend. 
The  good  instructor  is  one  in  whom  nature  or  discipline 
has  produced  what  we  may  call  intellectual  sympathy — 
such  an  insight  into  another's  mental  state  as  is  needed 
rightly  to  adjust  the  sequence  of  ideas  to  be  com- 
municated. To  what  extent  my  grandfather  possessed 
this  intellectual  sympathy  I  do  not  know ;  but  his  daily 
Ufe  cultivated  it  to  some  extent.  My  father  possessed  it 
in  a  high  degree,  and  throughout  hfe  cultivated  it.  I 
possess  it  in  a  still  higher  degree  :  so,  at  least,  I  was  told, 
when  a  young  man,  by  one  who  had  experience  of  my 


438  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

father's  expositions  and  of  mine.     It  appears,  then,  that 
the  faculty  has  developed  hj  exercise  and  inheritance. 

No  one  will  deny  that  I  am  much  given  to  criticism. 
Along  with  exposition  of  my  own  views  there  has  always 
gone  a  pointing  out  of  defects  in  the  views  of  others. 
And,  if  this  is  a  trait  in  my  writing,  still  more  is  it  a  trait 
in  my  conversation.  The  tendency  to  fault-finding  is 
dominant — disagreeably  dominant.  The  indicating  of 
errors  in  thought  and  in  speech  made  by  those  around,  has 
all  through  life  been  an  incurable  habit — a  habit  for  which 
I  have  often  reproached  myself,  but  to  no  purpose. 
Whence  this  habit  ?  There  is  the  same  origin  as  before. 
While  one-half  of  a  teacher's  time  is  spent  in  exposition, 
the  other  half  is  spent  in  criticism — in  detecting  mistakes 
made  by  those  who  are  saying  lessons,  or  in  correcting 
exercises,  or  in  checking  calculations ;  and  the  implied 
powers,  moral  and  intellectual,  are  used  with  a  sense  of 
duty  performed.  And  here  let  me  add  that  in  me,  too, 
a  sense  of  duty  prompts  criticism;  for  when,  occasionally, 
I  succeed  in  restraining  myself  from  making  a  comment 
on  something  wrongly  said  or  executed,  I  have  a  feeling  of 
discomfort,  as  though  I  had  left  undone  something  which 
should  have  been  done :  the  inherited  tendency  is  on  its 
way  to  become  an  instinct  acting  automatically. 

Similarly  to  be  explained  as  resulting  from  inheritance, 
is  an  allied  trait — disregard  of  authority.  Few  have 
shown  this  more  conspicuously.  As  an  early  illustration 
may  be  remembered  the  incident  narrated  of  myself  as 
happening  at  the  age  of  13,  when  I  called  in  question  the 
doctrine  of  inertia  set  forth  in  Dr.  Amott's  Physics  and  de- 
fended by  my  uncle,  and  persisted  in  my  dissent  spite  of  this 
combined  authority  against  me.  Out  of  illustrations  fur- 
nished by  later  hfe  may  be  named  my  published  rejection, 
in  1858,  of  the  conception  of  nebulaB  then  universally  ac- 
cepted in  the  astronomical  world  ;  and  again  my  rejection 
of  Owen's  theory  concerning  the  archetype  and  homologies 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  439 

of  the  vertebrate  skeleton,  at  that  time  accepted  in  the 
biological  world  and  taught  in  some  medical  schools. 
My  books  show  submission  to  established  authority,  only 
in  cases  where  my  knowledge  of  data  needed  for  judg- 
ment was  obviously  inadequate  (as,  say,  in  the  higher 
Mathematics,  or  the  higher  Physics,  or  in  Chemistry)  and 
where,  consequently,  the  opinions  of  experts  were  to  be 
accepted.  For  this  trait,  so  unusual  in  its  degree,  there 
is,  as  said  above,  the  same  explanation  as  before.  For 
what  is  the  attitude  perpetually  maintained  by  the 
teacher  ?  Always  in  presence  of  his  pupils  he  is  himself 
the  authority,  subject  to  no  other.  All  through  adult  life 
the  mental  attitude  of  subordination  is  made  foreign  to 
him  by  his  function.  Such  contact  as  he  occasionally  has 
with  superiors,  bears  but  a  very  small  ratio  to  the  contact 
he  has  with  inferiors.  Hence  the  sentiment  of  submission 
to  authority  is  but  little  exercised. 

A  closely-allied  trait,  or  in  part  another  aspect  of  the 
same  trait,  has  to  be  indicated — the  absence  of  moral 
fear.  In  the  account  of  my  life  at  Hinton,  a  passage  from 
a  letter  writen  by  my  uncle  to  my  father  was  quoted, 
conmienting  upon  this.     He  said : — 

"The  grand  deficiency  in  Herbert's  natural  character  is  in  the 
principle  of  Fear.  And  it  is  only  so  far  as  his  residence  with  me  ha« 
supplied  that  principle  in  a  degree  unusual  to  him,  that  after  a  few 
struggles  he  entirely  surrendered  himself  to  obey  roe  with  a  promptness 
and  alacrity  that  would  have  given  you  pleasure  to  witness  ;  and  the 
more  obedient  I  have  observed  him  the  more  I  have  refrained  from 
exercising  authority.  By  Fear^  I  mean  both  that  *  Fear  of  the  Lord ' 
which  *  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom,'  and  that  fear  of  Parents,  Tutors, 
&c." 

Deficient  fear  of  those  superior  to  me  in  age  or  position, 
of  course  implied  want  of  respect  for  authority  ;  but  it  in- 
cluded a  further  element — disregard  of  the  consequences 
which  such  disrespect  might  bring.  And  this  trait,  con- 
spicuous in  my  boyhood,  has  been  in  later  Ufe  shown 
throughout  my  writings ;  for  nowhere  have  I  betrayed 
any  fear  either  of  an  individual  or  of  the  aggregate  of 


440  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

individuals.  It  has,  in  fact,  never  occurred  to  me  to  hesitate 
because  of  foreseen  mischiefs ;  or  rather,  I  have  not  fore- 
seen them  because  I  have  not  thought  about  them.  It 
has  been  thus  even  in  cases  where  pubhc  disapprobation 
was  unmistakable;  as  in  my  persistent  opposition  to 
State-education — an  opposition  expressed  when  22,  and 
expressed  with  equal  or  greater  strength  when  73 ;  though 
for  these  many  years  past  I  have  been  conscious  that 
almost  the  whole  world  is  against  me.  And  now  observe 
that  we  have  the  same  explanation  as  before.  For  what 
is  the  relation  between  a  master  and  his  pupils  ?  It  is  a 
relation  from  which  the  sentiment  of  fear  on  his  side  is 
excluded.  The  school  is  a  small  society ;  and  in  it  the 
master  fears  neither  any  one  member  of  it  nor  the  whole 
assemblage. 

I  pass  now  to  a  bodily  trait  no  less  significant.  My 
hands  are  unusually  small — smaller  than  the  hands  of  a 
woman  of  less  than  my  own  height.  Both  in  size  of  the 
bones  and  in  development  of  the  accompanying  muscles 
they  are  considerably  below  what  they  should  be.  How  is 
this  ?  If  the  hves  passed  by  my  father  and  grandfather 
are  considered,  a  cause  is  manifest.  Both  of  them  did 
nothing  more,  day  by  day,  than  wield  the  pen  or  the  pencil, 
and  neither  of  them  was  given  to  sports  of  any  kind  or  to 
any  exercises  which  might  have  served  to  keep  up  the 
sizes  of  the  hands.  Occasionally,  when  a  young  man,  my 
father  went  fishing,  and  sometimes,  though  rarely,  he  did 
a  httle  gardening  of  a  Hght  kind ;  but  the  exercise  of  the 
hands  beyond  that  which  his  daily  avocations  entailed  was 
scarcely  appreciable.  In  me,  then,  the  hands  show  the 
result  of  two  generations  of  diminished  action. 

Thus  the  inheritance  of  acquu'ed  characters  is  exempli- 
fied in  four  mental  ti-aits  and  one  bodily  trait. 

It  is  rightly  said  that  a  man  has  the  defects  of  his 
qualities — ^that,  along  with  certain  advantages  his  nature 


^T.  73.]  EEFLECTIONS.  441 

yields  him,  there  go  certain  disadvantages.  On  consider- 
ing the  ^ects  of  the  inherited  traits  above  enumerated,  I 
am  struck  with  the  verification  of  this  truth  which  some 
of  them  afibrd. 

Lack  of  regard  for  authority,  and  fearlessness  of  the  con- 
sequences entailed  by  dissent  from  other  men's  opinions, 
have  been  part  causes  of  what  success  I  have  had  in 
philosophical  inquiry.  Such  reverence  for  great  names  as 
most  feel,  and  resulting  acceptance  of  established  doctrines, 
would  have  negatived  that  independence  without  which  I 
could  not  have  reached  the  conclusions  I  have.  Never 
stopping  to  ask  what  has  been  thought  about  this  or  that 
matter,  I  have  usually  gone  direct  to  the  facts  as  presented 
in  Nature,  and  drawn  inferences  afresh  from  them — 
occasionally,  it  may  be,  untrue  inferences,  but  in  other 
cases  inferences  which  are  true.  Meanwhile  the  impUed 
moral  nature  has  had — especially  in  early  life — injurious 
consequences.  Little  as  the  fact  was  recognized  by  my 
father,  the  insubordination  shown  during  my  childhood 
and  boyhood  was,  as  I  have  indicated,  a  trait  indirectly 
caused  by  absence  of  subordination  throughout  his  life 
and  the  life  of  his  father.  The  resulting  chronic  dis- 
obedience, so  often  deplored,  led  not  only  to  direct  evils, 
but  to  various  indirect  evils  :  chiefly  the  attitude  of  an- 
tagonism, the  alienation  of  feeling,  the  undermining  of  the 
afiections,  and  the  consequent  weakening  of  that  influence 
which  should  be  exercised  through  them :  a  diminished 
activity  of  sympathy  being  also  an  accompaniment.  So 
that  this  trait,  advantageous  to  me  as  a  thinker,  was 
otherwise  disadvantageous. 

Instead  of  saying  "  was,"  I  ought  to  say  "  has  been,"  for 
I  recognize  certain  detrimental  effects  extending  through- 
out adult  life.  One  has  been  a  tendency  to  under-estimate 
the  past  as  compared  with  the  present.  Doubtless  this 
has  been  partly  due  to  reaction  against  the  over-estimat- 
ing which  is  current.     To  me  it  has  seemed  obvious  that 


442  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

boys,  early  impressed  with  the  products  of  Greek  and 
Roman  civilization — products  sundry  of  which  appeal 
strongly  to  the  instincts  of  the  savage,  dominant  in  them 
at  that  age — never  recover  from  the  resulting  bias,  but 
remain  throughout  life  subject  to  the  perverted  judgments 
then  formed.  They  read  everything  ancient  with  a  pre- 
disposition to  appreciate,  and  everything  modem  with  a 
predisposition  to  depreciate. 

Uninfluenced  in  this  way,  I  have  very  Ukely  been  carried 
to  the  other  extreme.  Take,  for  example,  the  opinion 
about  Plato.  Time  after  time  I  have  attempted  to  read, 
now  this  dialogue  and  now  that,  and  have  put  it  down  in 
a  state  of  impatience  with  the  indefiniteness  of  the  think- 
ing and  the  mistaking  of  words  for  things :  being  repelled 
also  by  the  rambling  form  of  the  argument.  Once  when  I 
was  talking  on  the  matter  to  a  classical  scholar,  he  said — 
*'  Yes,  but  as  works  of  art  they  are  well  worth  reading." 
So,  when  I  again  took  up  the  dialogues,  I  contemplated 
them  as  works  of  art,  and  put  them  aside  in  greater 
exasperation  than  before.  To  call  that  a  '*  dialogue " 
which  is  an  interchange  of  speeches  between  the  thinker 
and  his  dummy,  who  says  just  what  it  is  convenient  to 
have  said,  is  absurd.  There  is  more  dramatic  propriety 
in  the  conversations  of  our  third-rate  novelists ;  and  such 
a  production  as  that  of  Diderot,  Rameau's  Nephew,  has 
more  strokes  of  dramatic  truth  than  all  the  Platonic 
dialogues  put  together,  if  the  rest  are  like  those  I  have 
looked  into.  Still,  quotations  from  time  to  time  met 
with,  lead  me  to  think  that  there  are  in  Plato  detached 
thoughts  from  which  I  might  benefit  had  I  the  patience 
to  seek  them  out.  The  like  is  probably  true  of  other 
ancient  writings. 

The  a  priori  conclusion  that  reaction  against  current 
error  almost  certainly  leads  to  an  opposite  error,  implying 
that,  being  so  intensely  modern,  I  undervalue  that  which 
is  ancient,  has  been  impressed  on  me  a  good  deal  of  late 


-^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  443 

years  by  recognizing  the  great  progress  made  during  some 
of  the  earliest  civilizations — Egyptian,  Babylonian,  Indian. 
But  while  it  has  become  clear  that  the  remains  left  by 
these  eastern  nations  prove  them  to  have  been  more 
advanced,  both  in  the  arts  and  in  thought,  than  I  had 
supposed,  and  that  lack  of  reverence  for  what  others  have 
said  and  done  has  tended  to  make  me  neglect  the 
evidence  of  early  achievements,  it  has  also  become  clear 
that  the  common  eductional  bias,  against  which  my  own 
bias  is  a  reaction,  has  led  to  a  like  under-estimation  of 
pre-classic  progress.  The  great  indebtedness  of  the 
Greeks  to  the  peoples  who  preceded  them  in  civilization, 
is  yearly  becoming  more  conspicuous. 

The  critical  tendency  dominant  in  me,  because  per- 
petually exercised  by  father  and  grandfather,  has  similarly 
entailed  advantages  and  disadvantages.  In  presence  of 
current  opinions  it  has  prompted  examinations,  often  dis- 
closing errors  and  causing  rejections ;  while,  as  already 
implied,  the  fault-finding  spirit,  leading  to  more  or  less 
disagreeableness  in  social  intercourse,  has  also  partially 
debarred  me  from  the  pleasures  of  admiration,  by  making 
me  too  much  awake  to  mistakes  and  shortcomings. 

In  conversation  the  critical  tendency  has  constantly  led 
to  discovery  of  reasons  for  disagreement  rather  than 
reasons  for  agreement.  To  name  those  points  in  respect 
of  which  another's  view  coincided  with  my  own,  has  not 
usually  occurred  to  me  ;  but  it  has  always  occurred  to  me 
to  name  the  points  of  non-coincidence  between  our  views. 

A  further  effect  has  been  to  render  my  enjoyment  of 
works  of  art  less  than  it  might  else  have  been.  The 
readiness  to  dwell  upon  defects  has  diminished  the  ap- 
preciation of  beauties,  by  pre-occupying  consciousness. 
Possibly  there  are  perfections  in  various  paintings  of  the 
old  masters  which  impress  me  but  little,  because  I  am 
keenly  alive  to  the  many  mistakes  in  chiaroscuro  which 


444  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

characterize  them.  These  force  themselves  on  my  at- 
tention in  a  way  which  they  would  not  do  were  there  no 
ench  constitutional  aptitude  for  seeing  the  imperfections. 
When  looking  at  Greek  sculpture,  too,  I  constantly  ob- 
serve how  unnatural  and  inartistic  is  the  drapery.  Though 
in  large  measure  I  admire  the  more  important  parts  of  the 
works,  my  admiration  is  much  less  than  it  would  be  but 
for  the  vivid  consciousness  of  this  drawback.  In  some 
measure  the  like  happens  with  music.  Many  years  ago, 
when  I  attended  the  opera  a  good  deal,  I  remarked  to 
one  who  was  frequently  my  companion — George  EHot — 
how  much  analysis  of  the  eflfects  produced  deducts  from 
enjoyment  of  the  effects.  In  proportion  as  intellect  is 
active  emotion  is  rendered  inactive.  And  a  like  result 
necessarily  accompanies  criticism,  since  the  critical  pro- 
cess involves  more  or  less  the  analytical  process.  So  is  it 
also  with  my  appreciation  of  Uterature — more  especially 
poetry.  In  these  various  cases  it  is  not  that  I  am  reluctant 
to  admire — quite  the  contrary.  I  rejoice  in  admiration ; 
and  rejoice  when  at  one  with  others  in  their  admiration. 
But  it  rarely  happens  that  the  work  of  art  of  whatever 
kind  is  so  satisfactory  in  every  way  as  to  leave  no  room 
for  adverse  comment. 

Not  in  respect  of  works  of  art  only,  but  also  in  respect 
of  some  works  of  Nature,  this  tendency  has  been  shown : 
the  works  of  Nature  being,  in  this  case,  persons.  An 
illustration  occurred  during  the  first  year  of  my  friend- 
ship with  the  Potters.  Mr.  Potter  had  a  younger  sister — 
a  great  beauty,  alike  in  face  and  figure.  During  the  visit 
of  my  uncle  and  aunt  to  them  in  Upper  Hamilton 
Terrace,  and  during  an  evening  I  was  spending  there,  my 
aunt  said  to  me: — "Well,  what  do  you  think  of  Miss 
Potter?"  Any  other  young  fellow  would  have  launched 
out  into  immeasured  praise.  But  my  reply  was : — "  I  do 
not  quite  like  the  shape  of  her  head  " :  referring,  of  course, 
to  my  phrenological  diagnosis.     The  incident  has  dwelt 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  445 

in  my  memory,  because  I  afterwards  blamed  myself  for 
the  absurd  way  in  which  I  had  singled  out  a  trait  that 
did  not,  on  theoretical  grounds,  quite  satisfy  me,  and 
ignored  all  that  there  was  calling  for  admiration. 

It  seems  probable  that  this  abnormal  tendency  to 
criticize  has  been  a  chief  factor  in  the  continuance  of  my 
celibate  Ufe.  Readiness  to  see  inferiorities  rather  than 
superiorities,  must  have  impeded  the  finding  of  one  who 
attracted  me  in  adequate  degree. 

Lest  the  above  anecdote  should  be  taken  to  imply 
deficient  appreciation  of  physical  beauty,  I  must  add 
that  this  is  far  from  being  the  fact.  The  fact  is  quite  the 
reverse.  Physical  beauty  is  a  sine  qud  non  with  me ;  as 
was  once  unhappily  proved  where  the  intellectual  traits 
and  the  emotional  traits  were  of  the  highest. 

How  difficult  is  the  judging  of  character ;  and  yet  how 
little  hesitation  most  people  have  in  forming  positive 
judgments.  "  What  do  you  think  of  Mr.  So-and-so  %  " 
has  been  the  question  occasionally  put  to  me  concerning 
someone  I  have  seen  for  an  hour.  And  then,  after  my 
reply  that  I  was  unable  to  form  an  opinion  so  soon, 
there  has  come  an  expression  of  surprise.  It  is  true  that 
occasionally,  where  the  manifestations  have  been  clear — 
perhaps  in  a  handsome  woman  spoiled  by  adulation,  who 
makes  great  claims  and  has  become  distinctly  selfish — 
my  estimate  has  been  formed  forthwith,  and  a  sufficiently 
strong  prejudice — if  it  is  to  be  so  called — established. 
But  in  average  cases  decision  is  suspended  until  I  have 
had  considerable  evidence. 

Sometimes  1  have  expressed  my  belief  about  this 
matter  by  the  paradox  that  nobody  knows  himself  and 
nobody  knows  any  one  else  ;  meaning,  by  this  extreme 
statement,  that  the  possibilities  of  a  nature  are  never 
disclosed  until  it  has  been  placed  in  all  circumstances, 
and  that  no  nature  ever  is  placed  in  all  circumstances. 


446  EEFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

Generally,  the  conditions  of  life  have  been  so  comparatively 
uniform  that  very  few  tests  have  been  applied,  and  very 
few  phases  of  character  made  visible  in  conduct. 

An  experience  of  early  years  gave  me  a  vivid  conscious- 
ness of  the  way  in  which  feehngs  are  readily  determined 
this  way  or  that  way  by  accidents.  It  was  in  the  days  of 
my  difficulties,  when  regard  for  economy  obliged  me 
always  to  travel  in  third-class  carriages :  then  far  less 
comfortable  than  they  are  now.  Opposite  to  me,  on  one 
occasion,  sat  a  man  who,  at  the  time  I  first  observed  him, 
was  occupied  in  eating  food  he  had  brought  with  him — I 
should  rather  say  devouring  it,  for  his  mode  of  eating  was 
so  brutish  as  to  attract  my  attention  and  fill  me  with 
disgust :  a  disgust  which  verged  into  anger.  Some  time 
after,  when  he  had  finished  his  meal  and  become  quiescent, 
I  was  struck  by  the  woe-begone  expression  of  his  face. 
Years  of  suffering  were  registered  on  it;  and,  while  I 
gazed  on  the  sad  eyes  and  deeply-marked  lines,  I  began  to 
reahze  the  life  of  misery  through  which  he  had  passed. 
As  I  continued  to  contemplate  the  face  and  to  understand 
all  which  its  expression  of  distress  impHed,  the  pity  excited 
in  me  went  to  the  extent  of  causing  that  constriction  of 
the  throat  which  strong  feeling  sometimes  produces. 
Here,  then,  were  two  utterly  antagonistic  emotions 
aroused  within  a  short  time  by  the  same  person  under 
different  aspects.  In  the  absence  of  the  change  described, 
either  of  these  might  have  arisen  without  the  other,  and 
either  of  them,  had  it  been  expressed  alone,  would  have 
given  to  other  persons  an  untrue  conception  of  me  :  an 
untrue  conception  which,  indeed,  I  should  have  had  of 
myself,  had  not  the  circumstances  been  varied  in  the  way 
they  were. 

In  respect  of  the  intellectual  faculties,  experience  shows 
that  manifestations  are  often  determined  by  accidents. 
Here  is  a  skilful  physician,  who,  in  the  leisure  part  of  his 
later  life,  shows  considerable  ability  in  water-colour  land- 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  447 

scape — an  ability  not  discovered  until  a  vacation  at  the 
seaside  in  company  with  an  artist  friend,  led  to  an  attempt. 
One  whose  forte  is  mathematics,  being  led  by  accident  into 
a  musical  circle,  proves  to  have  musical  gifts  which  neither 
he  nor  others  suspected.  And  some  exceptional  occasion 
discloses  the  fact  that  a  distinguished  chemist  is  also  a 
bom  orator.  But  what  is  true  of  the  intellectual  faculties 
is  also  true  of  the  emotional  faculties.  Each  nature  is  a 
bundle  of  potentialities  of  which  only  some  are  allowed 
by  the  conditions  to  become  actualities. 

In  this  latter  part  of  my  life  a  personal  illustration  has 
forced  this  truth  upon  me  in  a  marked  way.  During 
early  years,  and  throughout  mature  years,  there  was  no 
sign  of  marked  liking  for  children.  It  is  true  that  when, 
as  narrated,  I  took  up  my  abode  with  a  family  in  Marl- 
borough Gardens,  I  did  not  make  the  presence  of  children 
an  objection — rather  the  contrary.  It  is  true,  also,  that 
during  my  many  visits  to  Standish,  recurring  throughout  a 
large  part  of  my  life,  I  was  always  on  good  terms  with  the 
bevy  of  Uttle  girls  who  were  growing  up.  But  my  feeling 
was  of  a  tepid  kind,  and,  as  I  learned  from  one  of  them 
when  she  was  adult,  the  belief,  or  at  any  rate  her 
belief,  was  that  I  did  not  care  much  for  children.  Had  it 
not  been  for  a  mere  accident  this  might  have  remained 
her  belief  and  mine  also.  When  at  Brighton  in  1887, 
suffering  the  ennui  of  an  invalid  life,  passed  chiefly  in  bed 
and  on  the  sofa,  I  one  day,  while  thinking  over  modes  of 
killing  time,  bethought  me  that  the  society  of  children 
might  be  a  desirable  distraction.  The  girls  above  referred 
to  were  most  of  them,  at  the  time  I  speak  of,  married  and 
had  famiUes ;  and  one  of  them — Mrs.  W.  Cripps — let  me 
have  two  of  her  little  ones  for  a  fortnight.  The  result  of 
being  thus  placed  in  a  nearer  relation  to  children  than 
before,  was  to  awaken,  in  a  quite  unanticipated  way,  the 
philoprogenitive  instinct — or  rather  a  vicarious  phase  of 
it ;  and  instead  of  simply  affording  me  a  little  distraction. 


448  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

the  two  afforded  me  a  great  deal  of  positive  gratification. 
When  at  Dorking  a  year  afterwards,  I  again  petitioned  to 
have  them,  and  again  there  passed  a  fortnight  which  was 
pleasurable  to  me  and  to  them.  Such  was  the  effect  that 
from  that  time  to  this,  the  presence  of  a  pair  of  children, 
now  from  this  family  of  the  clan  and  now  from  that,  has 
formed  a  leading  gratification — I  may  say  the  chief  gratifi- 
cation— during  each  summer's  sojourn  in  the  country. 

Evidently,  but  for  the  thought,  and  consequent  experi- 
ment, at  Brighton,  my  nature,  in  so  far  as  this  part  of  it  is 
concerned,  would  have  remained  unknown  to  me  and  un- 
known to  every  one  else. 

So  is  it  with  character  throughout  its  entire  range. 
The  remark  that  the  manifestations  of  feelings  are  greatly 
changed  by  marriage  is  often  made.  The  new  circum- 
stances initiate  a  new  balance  ;  and  without  doubt  all 
other  new  circumstances  have  their  effects  in  bringing  out 
traits  not  before  known  to  exist. 

The  motives  which  cause  the  essential  actions  of  life  are 
simple.  No  one  fails  to  identify  the  appetite  which 
normally  prompts  eating ;  though,  in  an  invalid  state,  this 
prompting  feeling  may  become  comphcated,  or  replaced 
by  other  feelings.  So,  too,  with  the  love  of  children. 
Variations  in  its  quality  do  not  mask  its  essential  nature. 
But  when  we  come  to  those  complex  emotions  which 
originate  the  complex  actions  of  life,  there  is  usually  great 
difficulty  in  deciding  what  are  the  proportions  among 
their  components.  The  conduct  which  social  relations 
daily  call  out,  and  the  activities  into  which  all  are  led, 
may  be  generated  in  various  ways,  and  probably  in  no 
two  persons  are  generated  in  exactly  the  same  ways — in 
no  two  persons  are  the  elements  of  them  alike  in  then* 
kinds  and  then*  ratios. 

Occasionally  I  have  asked  myself  what  have  been  the 
motives   prompting    my   career — how  much    have  they 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  449 

been  egoistic  and  how  much  altruistic.  That  they  have 
been  mixed  there  can  be  no  doubt.  And  in  this  case,  as 
in  most  cases,  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  separate  them 
mentally  in  such  way  as  to  perceive  the  relations  of 
amount  among  them.  So  deep  down  is  the  gratification 
which  results  from  the  consciousness  of  efficiency,  and 
the  further  consciousness  of  the  applause  which  recognized 
efficiency  brings,  that  it  is  impossible  for  any  one  to 
exclude  it.  Certainly,  in  my  own  case,  the  desire  for  such 
recognition  has  not  been  absent.  Yet,  so  far  as  I  can 
remember,  ambition  was  not  the  primary  motive  of  my 
first  efforts,  nor  has  it  been  the  primary  motive  of  my 
larger  and  later  efforts.  The  letters  on  Tlie  Proper  Sphere 
of  Government  were  prompted  solely,  I  believe,  by  the 
desire  to  diffuse  what  seemed  to  me  true  views.  That  this 
was  a  chief  motive  to  the  rationalization  and  elaboration 
of  them  constituting  Social  Statics,  seems  implied  by  the 
fact  that,  had  it  not  been  for  the  publisher,  Mr.  Chapman, 
I  should  have  issued  the  work  anonymously.  And  of 
later  evidences  there  is  that  furnished  by  the  Descriptive 
Sociology,  on  which  I  continued  to  spend  money  and 
labour  after  the  absence  of  public  appreciation  became 
manifest. 

Still,  as  I  have  said,  the  desire  for  achievement  and  the 
honour  which  achievement  brings,  have  doubtless  been 
large  factors.  Where  I  have  been  forestalled  in  the  pro- 
mulgation of  an  idea,  I  have  unquestionably  felt  some 
annoyance ;  though  the  altruistic  sentiment  acting  alone 
would  have  made  me  equally  content  to  have  it  promul- 
gated by  another  as  by  myself.  In  controversy,  again, 
the  wish  for  personal  success  has  gone  along  with  the  wish 
to  establish  the  truth — perhaps  has  predominated  over  it,  as 
I  fancy  it  does  in  most.  For  fighting  excites  the  personal 
feeling  so  as  to  make  it  primary  rather  than  secondary. 
Nor  can  it  be  denied  that,  in  the  prosecution  of  my  chief 
undertaking,  I  have  been  throughout  stimulated  by  the  de- 

29 


450  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

sire  to  associate  my  name  with  an  achievement.  Though 
from  the  outset  I  have  had  in  view  the  eflfects  to  be  wrought 
on  men's  behefs  and  courses  of  action — especially  in  re- 
spect of  social  affairs  and  governmental  functions ;  yet  the 
sentiment  of  ambition  has  all  along  been  operative. 

Two  other  prompters  have  had  shares.  There  has  been 
the  immediate  gratification  which  results  from  seizing  and 
working  out  ideas.  As  I  once  heard  a  scientific  friend  say, 
the  greatest  satisfaction  he  knew  was  that  yielded  by 
a  successful  day's  hunting — figuratively  thus  expressing 
the  discovery  of  facts  or  truths.  And  it  has  been  with 
me  a  source  of  continual  pleasure,  distinct  from  other 
pleasures,  to  evolve  new  thoughts,  and  to  be  in  some  sort  a 
spectator  of  the  way  in  which,  under  persistent  contempla- 
tion, they  gradually  unfolded  into  completeness.  There 
is  a  keen  delight  in  intellectual  conquest — in  appropriat- 
ing a  portion  of  the  unknown  and  bringing  it  within 
the  realm  of  the  known. 

Of  these  two  remaining  prompters  the  other,  allied  to 
the  last  though  distinguishable  from  it,  is  the  architectonic 
instinct — the  love  of  system-building,  as  it  would  be 
called  in  less  complimentary  language.  During  these 
thirty  years  it  has  been  a  source  of  frequent  elation  to 
see  each  division,  and  each  part  of  a  division,  working  out 
into  congruity  with  the  rest — to  see  each  component 
fitting  into  its  place,  and  helping  to  make  a  harmonious 
whole.  That  the  gratification  of  this  instinct  has  been  a 
not  unimportant  factor,  I  find  at  the  present  moment 
clear  proof.  As  soon  as  I  have  ended  this  series  of  reflec- 
tions, I  am  about  to  commence  Part  VJI  of  the  Principles 
of  Sociology — "  Professional  Institutions  " — in  the  hope  that 
after  finishing  it  I  may  be  able  to  finish  also  the  next 
part — "  Industrial  Institutions,"  and  so  complete  the  third 
volume.  What  spurs  me  on  to  this  undertaking? 
Though  the  genesis  of  the  professions  constitutes  a  not 
uninteresting  subject,  it  does  not  seum  that  a  coherent 


iET.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  451 

account  of  it,  showing  how  the  general  process  of  evolu- 
tion is  afresh  illustrated,  is  of  any  public  importance.  Nor 
can  I  suppose  that  by  executing  this  piece  of  work  I  shall 
add  in  any  appreciable  degree  to  my  own  reputation : 
this  will  be  practically  the  same  whether  I  do  the  work  or 
not.  Clearly,  then,  my  desire  to  do  it  is  the  desire  to  fill 
up  a  gap  in  my  work.  My  feehng  is  analogous  to  that  of 
the  architect  when  contemplating  the  unfinished  wing  of 
a  building  he  has  designed,  or  one  of  the  roofs  only  half- 
built.  Like  the  restless  desire  he  would  feel  to  supply 
these  missing  structures,  is  the  restless  desire  I  feel  to 
complete  these  divisions  now  wanting. 

Though  it  is  partly  included  in  the  last  factor,  there 
should  be  definitely  named  a  further  factor — the  aesthetic 
sentiment.  There  appears  to  be  in  me  a  dash  of  the 
artist,  which  has  all  along  made  the  achievement  of 
beauty  a  stimulus :  not,  of  course,  beauty  as  commonly 
conceived,  but  such  beauty  as  may  exist  in  a  philosophical 
structure.  I  have  always  felt  a  wish  to  make  both  the 
greater  arguments,  and  the  smaller  arguments  composing 
them,  finished  and  symmetrical.  In  so  far  as  giving  co- 
herence and  completeness  is  concerned,  I  have  generally 
satisfied  my  ambition  ;  but  I  have  fallen  short  of  it  in  re- 
spect of  literary  form.  The  aesthetic  sense  has  in  this 
always  kept  before  me  an  ideal  which  I  could  never  reach. 
Though  my  style  is  lucid,  it  has,  as  compared  with  some 
styles,  a  monotony  that  displeases  me.  There  is  a  lack  of 
variety  in  its  verbal  forms  and  in  its  larger  components, 
and  there  is  a  lack  of  vigour  in  its  phrases.  But  the 
desire  for  perfection  has  in  this,  as  in  the  building  up  of 
arguments,  prompted  unceasing  eff"orts  to  remove  defects. 

Here  I  am  struck  with  a  proof  that  this  architectonic 
instinct  and  this  aesthetic  sentiment,  now  cliiefly  operative 
as  stimuli,  must  be  very  dominant ;  since  they  are  making 
me  persevere  spite  of  strong  deterrents.     With  a  brain 

29* 


452  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

lamed  when  I  was  five  and  thirty,  and  since  that  time  so 
frequently  put  wrong  by  over-work,  or  other  excitement,  as 
to  have  been  made  almost  incapable  of  bearing  activity, 
I  am,  at  seventy-three,  urged  on  to  do  a  little  more  of  the 
task  I  set  myself  thirty-three  years  ago. 

My  state  of  brain  is  now  such  that  I  am  obliged  to 
break  the  small  amount  of  work  I  do  into  short  lengths. 
I  dictate  for  ten  minutes  and  then  rest  awhile ;  and,  as  I 
have  observed  this  morning  (July  24,  1893),  1  do  not 
usually  repeat  this  process  more  than  five  times,  making 
a  total  of  fifty  minutes.  Very  frequently  (as  at  the  time  I 
am  revising  this  in  proof)  I  dare  not  do  more  than  three 
times  ten  minutes  or  twice  ten  minutes ;  and  often  I  dare 
do  nothing.  When  above  my  average,  there  is  the  addition 
of  a  little  revising  in  the  afternoon,  done  in  a  similar  manner 
— a  few  sentences  at  once.  Throughout  the  rest  of  the 
day  the  process  of  killing  time  has  to  be  carried  on  as  best 
it  may. 

Walking  has  to  be  restricted  to  two  or  three  hundred 
yards  when  at  my  best,  and  occasionally  has  to  be  given 
up  altogether.  A  drive  of  an  hour  and  a  quarter  or  an 
hour  and  a  half,  in  a  carriage  with  india-rubber  tyres,  is 
all  the  further  exercise  practicable;  and  continually  a 
little  excess  in  this  produces  injurious  effects,  now  and 
then  demanding  entire  desistance.  Reading,  even  of  the 
lightest  kind,  is  almost  as  injurious  as  working.  Every- 
day the  temptation  to  read  has  to  be  resisted :  a  few 
pages  at  once  being  alone  practicable.  Very  often  for- 
getfukiess  leads  to  a  transgression  of  the  limits ;  bring- 
ing, as  a  penalty,  a  night  worse  than  usual.  So  is  it  with 
conversation.  When  I  am  below  my  average,  this  has  to  be 
given  up  altogether,  and  when  at  my  best  has  to  be  kept 
within  narrow  bounds.  Even  much  listening  is  negatived. 
I  make  use  of  ear- stoppers,  which  when  I  cannot  con- 
veniently leave  the  room,  enable  me  to  shut  out  the  voices 
of  those  around  sufficiently  to  prevent  me  from  under- 


Mt.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  453 

standing  what  is  said ;  for  damage  results  from  the  con- 
tinuous attention  which  listening  involves. 

The  mischief  caused  by  continuous  attention  prevents 
use  of  the  microscope,  in  which  I  had  this  year  hoped  to 
occupy  a  little  time  while  here  (Pewsey).  A  small  amount 
of  it  produced  general  disturbance,  which  lasted  several 
days ;  and  now  I  find  that  three  or  four  minutes  at  a  time 
is  as  much  as  I  can  bear.  Games,  too,  of  all  kinds  are 
rendered  impracticable.  Even  the  simple  child's  game  of 
spUlicans,  requiring  intent  observation  and  careful  action 
of  the  muscles,  proves  too  much  for  me.  Cards  are  quite 
out  of  the  question ;  and  I  have  not  tried  backgammon 
since  1887,  when,  being  at  the  time  in  a  low  condition, 
two  games  caused  a  serious  relapse. 

Of  course  this  constitutional  state,  varying  within  wide 
limits,  usually  forbids  social  intercoui-se.  I  have  not  been 
at  a  soiree  for  these  ten  years ;  and  only  on  a  few  occasions 
since  1882  have  dared  to  dine  out:  the  last  occasion 
being  nearly  two  years  since,  when  the  imprudence  was 
severely  punished.  Public  amusements  are  rigorously 
excluded.  When  in  the  United  States  in  1882,  I  went  to 
a  theatre,  but  never  since.  Concerts,  too,  are  negatived. 
Half-an-hour  proved  more  than  enough  the  last  time  I 
attended  one.  Nor  can  any  considerable  amount  of 
drawing-room  music  be  borne.  When,  two  years  ago, 
Mr.  Carnegie  presented  me  with  a  piano,  I  made  arrange- 
ments with  a  professional  lady  to  give  me  an  hour's  per- 
formance upon  it  weekly;  but  two  experiments  sufficed 
to  cause  desistance.  I  got  no  sleep  afterwards  on  either 
occasion. 

Thus  the  waking  hours  have  to  be  passed  in  an  un- 
exciting and,  by  implication,  in  an  uninteresting  way — 
lying  on  the  sofa  or  lounging  about,  and,  when  the 
weather  and  the  place  permit,  as  now,  sitting  very  much 
in  the  open  air,  hearing  and  observing  the  birds,  watching 
the  drifting  clouds,  Ustening  to  the  sighings  of  the  wind 


454  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

through  the  trees,  and  letting  my  thoughts  ramble  in  harm- 
less ways,  avoiding  as  much  as  possible  exciting  subjects. 
But  of  course,  debarred,  as  I  thus  am,  from  bodily  and 
mental  exercise  and  most  kinds  of  pleasures,  no  ingenuity 
can  prevent  weariness. 

When  I  speak  of  the  waking  hours,  meaning  of  course 
the  day,  as  passed  in  this  manner,  I  apparently  imply  that 
the  hours  of  the  night  are  not  waking  hours.  But  in 
large  measure  they  are.  If  the  day  has  been  gone  through 
with  prudence,  and  I  have  taken  my  dose  of  opium 
(1^  grains)  at  the  right  hour,  then  between  half-past  ten 
and  perhaps  one,  perhaps  two,  perhaps  half-past  two, 
broken  sleep  is  obtained — never  continuous  sleep.  After 
that  come  hours  of  sleeplessness  and  tossing  from  side  to 
side  ;  mostly  followed,  but  sometimes  not  followed,  by  more 
broken  sleep  before  the  servant  comes  with  my  breakfast 
in  the  morning,  at  8.  And  then  the  dreams  accompanying 
such  sleep  as  I  obtain,  though  not  bad  in  the  sense  of  being 
dreadful  or  horrible,  are  usually  annoying. 

Yet  this  state  which  I  have  brought  myself  to  by  forty 
years  of  brain-work — a  brain-work  which  would  have 
been  by  no  means  too  much  had  I  not  at  the  outset  over- 
strained myself — I  am  impelled  to  maintain  by  this  desire 
to  continue  the  task  I  have  undertaken.  This  architect- 
onic instinct  tyrannizes  over  me.  Such  more  comfortable 
life  as  I  might  lead  if  I  would  cease  altogether  to  tax  my- 
self, I  decline  to  lead.  And  this  I  suppose  for  the  reason 
that,  though  more  comfortable  in  one  sense,  it  would  be  on 
the  whole  less  comfortable.  Besides  being  deban'od  from 
that  slight  pleasurable  excitement  given  me  by  the  trifling 
amount  of  work  I  am  able  to  do  daily,  there  would  be 
the  perpetual  consciousness  of  something  left  undone 
which  I  wanted  to  do.  The  weariness  would  become 
still  worse  had  I  to  spend  the  whole  day  in  killing  time, 
with  such  small  means  of  doing  it. 

Contemplation   of   these  physical  consequences  of  my 


Mt.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  455 

career  leads  me  to  think  of  the  other  consequences — 
pecuniary,  social,  &c. ;  and  the  thought  of  them  raises 
the  question, — What  advice  would  I  give  to  an  aspirant, 
who,  in  early  or  middle  life,  thought  of  devoting  himself 
to  philosophy,  or  to  some  other  division  of  grave  litera- 
ture :  prompted  to  do  so  by  the  belief  that  he  had  some- 
thing important  to  say  ?  Supposing  the  something  to  be 
really  of  importance  (against  which,  however,  the  pro- 
babilities are  great,  notwithstanding  his  own  confident 
opinion),  deterrent  advice  might  fitly  be  given. 

In  the  first  place,  unless  his  means  are  such  as  enable 
him  not  only  to  live  for  a  long  time  without  returns,  but 
to  bear  the  losses  Avhich  his  books  entail  on  him,  he 
will  soon  be  brought  to  a  stand  and  subjected  to  heavy 
penalties.  My  own  history  well  exemplifies  this  proba- 
bility, or  rather  certainty.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  £80 
which,  in  1850,  I  proved  to  the  printer  was  coming  to  me 
under  the  Railway  Winding-up  Act,  I  should  have  been 
unable  to  publish  Social  Statics.  Only  because  the  bequest 
from  my  uncle  Thomas  made  it  possible  to  live  for  a  time 
without  remunerative  labour,  was  I  enabled  to  write  and 
publish  the  Principles  of  Psychology.  For  two  years  after 
The  Synthetic  Philosophy  had  been  projected,  no  way  of 
bringing  it  before  the  world  was  discoverable.  When,  at 
length,  mainly  by  the  aid  of  scientific  friends,  without 
whose  endorsement  I  could  have  done  nothing,  it  became 
possible  to  get  together  a  sufficient  number  of  subscribers, 
it  was  presently  proved  that,  partly  because  of  my  in- 
ability to  keep  up  the  intended  rate  of  publication,  and 
partly  because  of  losses  entailed  by  numerous  defaulters, 
I  should  have  been  obliged  to  desist  before  the  completion 
of  First  Principles,  had  it  not  been  that  the  death  of  my 
uncle  William,  and  bequest  of  the  greater  part  of  his 
property  to  me,  afforded  the  means  of  continuing.  Not 
even  then  were  my  difficulties  ended.  Six  years'  persis- 
tence in  work  which  failed  to  yield  such  returns  as,  added 
to  other  sources  of  income,  sufficed  to  meet  my  modest 


456  EEFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

expenses  of  living,  brought  me,  in  1866,  to  an  impending 
cessation.  After  finding  that  in  the  course  of  the  years 
devoted  to  philosophical  ■writing,  I  had  sunk  more  than 
£1100,  and  was  continuing  to  lose,  I  announced  that  when 
the  volume  then  in  hand  was  completed  I  should  discon- 
tinue. Only  because  the  necessity  for  discontinuance 
was  removed,  partly  by  the  American  testimonial  and 
partly  by  my  father's  death,  which  diminished  the  re- 
sponsibilities coming  upon  me,  was  the  notice  of  cessation 
cancelled.  Even  after  that,  several  years  elapsed  before 
the  returns  from  my  books  became  such  as  put  me  quite 
at  my  ease.  And  only  in  subsequent  years  did  my  income 
become  ample.  Evidently  it  was  almost  a  miracle  that 
I  did  not  sink  before  success  was  reached. 

As  the  difficulties  of  self-maintenance  while  pursuing  a 
career  analogous  to  mine,  are  almost  insuperable,  the 
maintenance  of  a  wife  and  family  must  of  course  be  im- 
possible. One  who  devotes  himself  to  grave  literature 
must  be  content  to  remain  celibate ;  unless,  indeed,  he 
obtains  a  wife  having  adequate  means  for  both,  and  is 
content  to  put  himself  in  the  implied  position.  Even  then, 
family  cares  and  troubles  are  likely  to  prove  fatal  to  his 
undertakings.  As  was  said  to  me  by  a  scientific  friend, 
who  himself  knew  by  experience  the  effect  of  domestic 
worries — "  Had  you  married  there  would  have  been  no 
system  of  philosophy." 

If  the  prompting  motive  is  the  high  one  of  doing  some- 
thing to  benefit  mankind,  and  if  there  is  readiness  to  bear 
losses  and  privations  and  perhaps  ridicule  in  pm-suit  of 
this  end,  no  discouragement  is  to  be  uttered ;  further  than 
that  there  may  be  required  greater  patience  and  self- 
sacrifice  than  will  prove  practicable.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  main  element  in  the  ambition  is  the  desire  to 
achieve  a  name,  the  probability  of  disappointment  may 
still  be  placed  in  bar  of  it.  Adequate  appreciation  of  writ- 
ings not  adapted  to  satisfy  popular   desires,  is   long  in 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  457 

coming,  if  it  ever  comes ;  and  it  comes  the  more  slowly 
to  one  who  is  either  not  in  literary  circles,  or,  being  in 
them,  will  not  descend  to  literary  "  log-rolling,"  and  other 
arts  by  which  favourable  recognition  is  often  gained. 
Comparative  neglect  is  almost  certain  to  follow  one  who 
declines  to  use  influence  with  reviewers,  as  I  can  abund- 
antly testify. 

Even  should  it  happen  that,  means  and  patience  having 
suflSced,  the  goal  is  at  length  reached  and  applause  gained, 
there  will  come  nothing  like  the  delights  hoped  for.  Of 
literary  distinction,  as  of  so  many  other  things  which  men 
pursue,  it  may  be  truly  said  that  the  game  is  not  worth 
the  candle.  When  compared  with  the  amount  of  labour 
gone  through,  the  disturbances  of  health  borne,  the  denial 
of  many  gratifications  other^vi8e  attainable,  and  the  long 
years  of  waiting,  the  satisfaction  which  final  recognition 
gives  proves  to  be  relatively  trivial.  As  contrasted  with 
the  aggregate  of  preceding  pains,  the  achieved  pleasure  is 
insignificant.  A  transitory  emotion  of  joy  may  be  pro- 
duced by  the  first  marks  of  success ;  but  after  a  time  the 
continuance  of  success  excites  no  emotion  which  rises 
above  the  ordinary  level.  It  is,  indeed,  astonishing  to 
what  an  extent  men  are  deluded  into  pursuit  of  "  the  bub- 
ble reputation,"  when  they  have  within  their  reach  satis- 
factions which  are  much  greater :  supposing,  at  least,  that 
the  endeavours  to  gain  these  greater  satisfactions  are  not 
disappointed,  which  unhappily  they  very  often  are. 

And,  then,  beyond  the  fact  that  literary  success  when 
it  comes,  if  it  ever  does  come,  brings  pleasures  far  less 
than  were  anticipated,  there  is  the  fact  that  it  brings 
vexations  and  worries  often  greatly  exceeding  them. 
While  the  approbation  looked  for  often  does  not  come, 
there  often  comes  instead  undeserved  disapprobation. 
Adverse  criticisms  of  utterly  unjust  kinds  frequently 
pursue  the  conscientious  writer,  not  only  during  his 
period  of  struggle  but  after  he  has  reached  his  desired 


458  REFLECTIONS.  [1893 

position.  Careless  mis-statements  and  gross  misrepresent- 
ations continually  exasperate  him ;  and  if  he  measures  the 
pains  produced  by  these  against  the  pleasures  produced 
by  due  appreciation,  he  is  likely  to  find  them  in  excess. 

Beyond  the  evils  which  the  aspirant  will  have  to  bear 
in  the  shape  of  blame  for  ascribed  oversights  which  do  not 
exist,  and  ascribed  errors  which  are  not  committed,  and 
ascribed  absurdities  which  are  in  truth  rational  conclusions, 
he  may  have  to  bear  graver  evils.  If  his  writings  are  of 
kinds  which  arouse  antagonisms,  political,  religious,  or 
social,  there  will  be  visited  upon  him  the  anger  of  offended 
prejudices,  or  of  threatened  interests,  or  both. 

Already,  in  giving  an  account  of  my  uncle  Thomas,  I 
have  pointed  out  the  extent  to  which  the  odium  theologicum, 
joined  with  the  animosity  caused  by  attack  on  class- 
interests,  may  prompt  grave  calumnies.  One  who  raised 
his  parish  from  a  low  and  neglected  state  to  a  state 
of  relative  culture  and  prosperity ;  one  who  spent  all 
his  spare  time  in  efforts  to  benefit  the  working-classes  by 
lectures  and  writings ;  one  who,  returning  from  the  scenes 
of  his  philanthropic  exertions,  always  reached  home  on 
Saturday  night  so  as  to  give  his  two  services  on  the 
Sunday;  one  who  for  discharge  of  his  clerical  duties,  and 
for  activities  which  went  far  beyond  them,  received  the 
pittance  of  £80  a  year ;  was  actually  described  as  a 
sinecuristi  One  whose  efforts  were  devoted  to  the 
moralization  of  men  so  strenuously  that  he  eventually 
killed  himself  by  them,  was  described  as  not  even  expend- 
ing the  efforts  which  an  ordinary  parish  priest  devotes  to 
the  mechanical  performance  of  his  routine  functions  in 
return  for  a  good  income!  While  doing  an  excess  of 
work,  he  was  stigmatized  as  doing  none ! 

From  theological  antagonism  I  have  myself  suffered 
but  little ;  and,  indeed,  have  met  with  an  amount  of  for- 
bearance and  sympathy  which  has  surprised  me.     On  me, 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  459 

however,  there  have  of  late  come  the  effects  of  pohtical 
animosity.  In  my  first  work,  Social  Statics^  it  was  con- 
tended that  ahenation  of  the  land  from  the  people  at  large 
is  inequitable ;  and  that  there  should  be  a  restoration  of  it 
to  the  State,  or  incoi'porated  community,  after  making  due 
compensation  to  existing  landowners.  In  later  years  I 
concluded  that  a  resumption  on  such  terms  would  be  a 
losing  transaction,  and  that  individual  ownership  under 
State-suzerainty  ought  to  continue.  In  his  Progress  and 
Poverty^  Mr.  Henry  George,  quoting  the  conclusion  drawn 
in  Social  Statics,  made  it  a  part-basis  for  his  arguments ;  and, 
when  my  changed  belief  was  made  pubhc,  his  indignation 
was  great.  There  resulted  after  some  years  a  work  by 
him  entitled  A  Perplexed  Philosopher,  in  which  he  devoted 
three  hundred  odd  pages  to  denunciation,  not  only  of  my 
views  but  of  my  motives,  and  assailed  me  as  a  traitor  to 
the  cause  of  the  people.  He  alleged  that  my  change  of 
opinion  must  have  resulted  from  a  wish  to  ingratiate  my- 
self with  the  landed  and  ruling  classes :  applying  to  me 
Browning's  lines  in  The  Lost  Leader — "  Just  for  a  hand- 
ful of  silver  he  left  us,  just  for  a  ribbon  to  stick  in  his 
coat."  This  he  did  in  face  of  the  fact  that  in  works 
quoted  by  him,  I  have  spoken  disrespectfully  of  the  two 
most  conspicuous  members  of  these  classes,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone and  Lord  Salisbury  {Study  of  Sociology,  chap,  xvi,  and 
Principles  of  Ethics,  §130)  ;  and  have  thus  spoken  of  each 
at  the  time  when  he  was  Prime  Minister,  and  had  in  his 
hands  the  dispensing  of  honours  and  patronage  !  Then, 
turning  his  fiction  into  a  fact,  and  working  himself  into  a 
fury  over  it,  Mr.  George  does  not  scruple  to  manufacture 
evidence  in  its  support.     He  says  : — 

The  name  of  Herbert  Spencer  now  appears  with  those  of  about  all 
the  Dukes  in  the  kingdom  as  the  director  of  an  association  formed  for 
the  purpose  of  defending  private  property  in  land  (p.  201). 

I  am  a  member  of  but  one  political  body.     This  body, 

which  I   was  in  part   instrumental   in   establishing,  was 


460  HEFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

subsequently  joined  by  sundry  men  of  title,  and  among 
them  two  dukes.  This  body  is  the  London  Ratepayers 
Defence  League  1 

Mr.  George's  book,  circulated  in  the  United  States  and 
in  England,  has  been  reviewed  in  various  journals  which 
have  accepted  its  statements ;  'c*nd  many  have  quoted  its 
denunciations,  apparently  supposing  that  there  was  ground 
for  them.  Even  The  Times  cites,  without  any  condemna- 
tion of  it,  Mr.  George's  charge  that  I  have  "  abandoned 
the  necessary  inferences,  from  motives  less  abstract  and 
considerably  less  creditable,  than  those  founded  on  sound 
logic  and  the  truth  of  things."     (January  12,  1893.) 

Here,  then,  are  lessons  for  one  who,  deaHng  with  theo- 
logical, pohtical,  or  social  subjects,  says  candidly  what  he 
believes.  If  his  career  leads  him  to  set  forth  views  excit- 
ing class-animosities,  or  individual-animosities,  he  may 
coimt  upon  greater  evils  than  are  entaUed  by  the  stupidi- 
ties and  misinterpretations  of  critical  journals ;  and  must 
take  into  account  the  possibility,  if  not  the  probability, 
that  he  will  be  injured  by  utterly  false  interpretations  of 
his  motives  and  by  consequent  vilifications. 

Is  it  then  that  these  various  dissuasives,  had  they  been 
put  before  me  when  I  began  my  career,  would  have 
stopped  me ;  or  do  I  regret  that  I  was  not  stopped  by 
such  dissuasives  ?  I  cannot  say  yes.  If  at  the  outset  the 
many  chances  against  success  had  been  specified,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  desistance  would  have  resulted.  Nor 
even  had  I  seen  clearly  the  evil  to  be  entailed  in  the  shape 
of  ill-health,  would  this  further  deterrent  have  sufficed. 
Once  having  become  possessed  by  the  conception  of 
Evolution  in  its  comprehensive  form,  the  desire  to  elaborate 
and  set  it  forth  was  so  strong  that  to  have  passed  life  in 
doing  something  else  would,  I  think,  have  been  almost  in- 
tolerable.    The  perpetual  consciousness  of  a  large  aim 


Mt.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  461 

unachieved  would  have  been  a  cause  of  chronic  irritation 
hardly  to  be  borne. 

Little,  then,  as  I  should  encourage  another  to  follow  my 
example  and  throw  prudence  to  the  winds,  it  will  readily 
be  understood  that,  as  things  have  turned  out,  I  find  no 
reason  to  regret  the  course  I  took  and  the  life  I  have 
passed :  very  much  the  contrary,  indeed.  Nearly  all  men 
have  to  spend  their  energies,  year  after  year,  in  occupa- 
tions which  are  more  or  less  wearisome,  if  not  repugnant, 
simply  that  they  may  gain  the  means  of  living  for  them- 
selves and  their  dependents ;  and  have  not  the  daily  satis- 
faction of  working  towards  a  greatly-desired  end.  The 
artist  of  genius  may,  indeed,  be  named  as  one  whose 
labour  subserves  the  double  purpose  of  bringing  him 
material  support  and  realizing  his  conceptions:  the 
pleasurableness  of  the  last  being  doubtless  very  great. 
The  born  musician,  or  painter,  or  poet,  experiences  an  in- 
tensity of  pleasure  in  his  work  which  no  other  man  does. 
But  omitting  these,  men  at  large  have  to  pass  their  days 
in  duties  from  which  they  would  gladly  be  excused.  Quite 
diBferent  has  been  my  lot :  my  chief  complaint  having 
been  that  state  of  brain  every  day  forbade  me  to  continue 
when  I  wished  to  do  so.  Even  taking  into  account 
chronic  disturbance  of  health,  I  have  every  reason  to  be 
satisfied  with  that  which  fate  has  awarded  me. 

Moreover,  these  disturbances  of  health  have  not  been  of 
a  kind  so  diGScult  to  bear  as  those  borne  by  many  who 
have  no  compensations  for  them.  They  have  not  entaUed 
on  me  any  positive  sufiering  ;  unless,  indeed,  the  weariness 
and  irritation  of  perpetual  bad  nights  come  under  that 
name.  I  have  not  been  subject  to  much  positive  pain: 
less,  I  think,  than  most  are.  And  then,  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  time  since  my  break-down  in  1855,  the  con- 
stitutional state,  which  seems  to  have  become  adapted  to 
a  small  amount  of  broken  sleep,  has  not  been  such  as  to 


462  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

negative  many  of  the  pleasures  within  reach.  It  is  true 
that,  reading  to  any  considerable  extent  being  injurious, 
light  literature  has  been  almost  wholly  out  off,  and  re- 
striction of  evening  excitements  has  been  imperative ;  but 
otherwise,  up  to  the  age  of  62,  the  deprivations  were  not 
great.  Only  during  the  last  ten  years,  and  especially 
during  the  last  six  years,  have  I  been  more  and  more  cut 
off  from  most  relaxations. 

And  here  let  me  exclude  some  misapprehensions  likely 
to  be  caused  by  what  has  been  said  above.  Naturally  it 
will  be  inferred  that  the  chronic  perturbations  of  health 
described,  and  especially  those  which  of  late  years  have 
brought  me  to  what  may  be  called  an  invalid  life,  must 
be  indicated  by  an  invalid  appearance.  This  is  far  from 
being  the  case.  Neither  in  the  lines  of  the  face  nor  in  its 
colour,  is  there  any  such  sign  of  constitutional  derange- 
ment as  would  be  expected.  Contrariwise,  I  am  usually 
supposed  to  be  about  ten  years  younger  than  I  am.  And 
this  anomalous  pecuharity  conforms  to  a  medical  observa- 
tion which  I  have  seen  made,  that  nervous  subjects 
are  generally  older  than  they  look. 

Thus,  if  I  leave  out  altruistic  considerations  and  include 
egoistic  considerations  only,  I  may  still  look  back  from 
these  declining  days  of  life  with  content.  One  drawback 
indeed  there  has  been,  and  that  a  great  one.  All  through 
those  years  in  which  work  should  have  had  the  accomp- 
animent of  wife  and  children,  my  means  were  such  as  to 
render  marriage  impossible :  I  could  barely  support  my- 
self, much  less  others.  And  when,  at  length,  there  came 
adequate  means  the  fit  time  had  passed  by.  Even  in  this 
matter,  however,  it  may  be  that  fortune  has  favoured  me. 
Frequently  when  prospects  are  promising,  dissatisfaction 
follows  marriage  rather  than  satisfaction  ;  and  in  my  own 
case  the  prospects  would  not  have  been  promising.  I  am 
not  by  nature  adapted  to  a  relation  in  which  perpetual 
compromise   and    great  forbearance  are    needful.     That 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  463 

extreme  critical  tendency  which  I  have  above  described, 
joined  with  a  lack  of  reticence  no  less  pronounced,  would, 
I  fear,  have  caused  perpetual  domestic  differences.  After 
all  my  celibate  hfe  has  probably  been  the  best  for  me,  as 
well  as  the  best  for  some  unknown  other. 

And  now,  having  made  these  reflections  concerning  my 
own  nature  and  its  relation  to  the  work  I  have  done,  what 
have  I  got  to  say  concerning  things  at  large  ?  Besides 
those  products  of  experience  which,  in  my  books,  have  been 
organized  into  a  coherent  whole,  what  further  products 
have  been  collaterally  formed.  In  these  my  declining 
days,  what  noteworthy  differences  have  arisen  in  the 
aspects  which  the  world  around  presents  to  me? 

Not  very  much  has  to  be  said  beyond  emphasizing  what 
has  been  already  said.  In  various  of  my  later  books  there 
have  been  indicated  those  modifications  of  views  which 
mature  years  had  brought  concerning  political,  religious, 
and  social  affairs.  The  years  which  have  since  elapsed 
have  sei'ved  but  to  make  these  modifications  more  marked. 
All  that  remains  is  to  set  them  forth  in  their  accentuated 
shapes,  after  asking  what  probability  there  is  that  the 
opinions  formed  in  this  closing  part  of  life  are  nearer  to 
the  truth  than  those  formed  in  its  earlier  part. 

The  comparative  conservatism  of  old  age  has  various 
factors.  In  part  it  results  negatively  from  diminished 
energy.  Strength  prompts  action ;  and  action,  resulting 
in  change,  famiharizes  the  mind  with  changes  and  makes 
the  effecting  of  them  relatively  attractive :  enterprise 
is  a  trait  of  youth.  Not  diminished  strength  only, 
but  hardening  habit  also,  tends  to  make  changes  less 
and  less  attractive.  To  break  through  the  usages  of 
thought  and  conduct  gradually  established,  becomes  at 
once  difficult  and  repugnant.  Then,  to  these  obstacles 
resulting  from  constitutional  alteration  are  added  others 
arising  from  what  is  in  one  sense  mental  growth.     Things 


464  REFLECTIONS,  [1893. 

which  in  early  life  look  simple  and  easy  to  deal  with,  are 
found,  as  life  goes  on,  to  be  complex  and  deeply  rooted. 
In  what  appeared  wholly  evil  there  are  discovered  ele- 
ments of  good  below  the  surface ;  and  what  once  seemed 
useless  or  superfluous  is  discovered  to  be  in  some  way 
beneficial,  if  not  essential.  In  each  man  as  he  grows  old 
such  factors  act  in  various  proportions  and  combinations : 
those  due  to  senihty  being  usually  the  chief. 

In  myself  those  due  to  wider  observation  and  longer 
thought  are,  I  believe,  predominant.  I  believe  this  be- 
cause the  aversion  felt  in  early  days  for  the  older  types  ot 
social  organization  survives.  Now,  as  at  first,  not  only  is 
autocracy  detestable,  but  there  persists  a  disHke  to  that 
form  of  personal  rule  seen  in  quahfied  monarchical  govern- 
ments. I  still  sometimes  think  to  myself,  as  I  thought 
fifty  years  ago,  how  ludicrous  would  be  the  account  given 
by  some  second  Micromegas  who,  looking  down  on  the 
doings  of  these  little  beings  covering  the  Earth's  surface, 
told  how,  to  some  member  of  a  particular  family,  they 
assigned  vast  revenues  and  indulgences  beyond  possibility 
of  enjoyment,  ascribed  beauty  where  there  was  ugliness, 
intelligence  where  there  was  stupidity,  traits  of  character 
above  the  average  where  they  were  below ;  and  then  daily 
surrounded  these  idealized  persons  with  flattering  cere- 
monies, accorded  to  them  extensive  powers,  and  treated 
with  contumely  any  who  did  not  join  in  the  general 
worship.  Holding  that  true  loyalty  consists  in  honouring 
that  which  is  intrinsically  honourable,  and  showing  rever- 
ence for  a  worth  demonstrated  by  conduct  and  achieve- 
ment, I  feel  at  present,  as  in  the  past,  irritated  by  such 
observances  as  those  which  lately  showered  multitudinous 
wedding  presents,  and  contributions  of  money  from  count- 
less men  and  women,  on  two  young  people  who,  enjoying 
luxurious  lives,  have  neither  benefited  their  kind  nor 
shown  the  least  capacity  for  benefiting  them.  Hence  it 
is  clearly  not  because  of  any  change  of  sentiment  that  I 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS,  465 

look  with  greater  tolerance  on  monarchy ;  but  simply  be- 
cause wider  knowledge  has  led  me  to  perceive  its  adapta- 
tion to  the  existing  type  of  man.  Institutions  of  every 
kind  must  be  regarded  as  relative  to  the  characters  of 
citizens  and  the  conditions  under  which  they  exist ;  and 
the  feeHngs  enh'sted  on  behalf  of  such  institutions  must 
be  judged,  not  by  their  absolute  fitness  but  by  their  rela- 
tive fitness.  While  the  average  feelings  of  people  con- 
tinue to  be  those  which  are  daily  shown,  it  would  be  no 
more  proper  to  deprive  them  of  their  king  than  it  would 
be  proper  to  deprive  a  child  of  its  doll. 

Chiefly,  however,  the  greater  contentment  I  feel  now 
than  of  old  with  established  governmental  forms,  is  due  to 
the  strengthened  belief  that  there  is  a  necessary  connexion 
between  the  natures  of  the  social  units  and  the  nature  of 
the  social  aggregate.  A  cardinal  doctrine  of  M.  Comte 
and  his  disciples,  is  that  individual  men  are  products  of  the 
great  body  in  which  they  exist — that  they  are,  in  all  their 
higher  attributes,  created  by  that  incorporated  humanity 
called  by  Comte  the  supreme  being.  But  it  is  no  less  true, 
or  rather  it  is  much  more  true,  that  the  society  is  created 
by  its  units,  and  that  the  nature  of  its  organization  is  de- 
termined by  the  natures  of  its  units.  The  two  act  and 
re-act ;  but  the  original  factor  is  the  character  of  the  in- 
dividuals, and  the  derived  factor  is  the  character  of  the 
society.  The  conception  of  the  social  organism  necessarily 
implies  this.  The  units  out  of  which  an  individual  organ- 
ism builds  itself  up,  will  not  build  up  into  an  organism  of 
another  kind :  the  structure  of  the  animal  evolved  from 
them  is  inherent  in  them.  So,  too,  is  it  in  large  measure 
with  a  society.  I  say  "  in  large  measure  "  because  the  rela- 
tions between  the  two  are  less  rigid.  In  an  animal  the 
units  and  the  organism  have  worked  together,  acting  and 
reacting,  for  milHons  of  years;  but  in  a  society  for  only  a 
few  thousands  of  years,  and  in  the  higher  types  of  societies 
for  only  a  few  hundreds  of  years.     Hence  the  character  of 

30 


466  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

the  society  inheres  in  the  characters  of  its  units  far  less 
deeply.  Still,  it  inheres  in  so  considerable  a  degree  that 
complete  change  from  one  social  type  to  another  is  im- 
practicable; and  a  suddenly-made  change  is  inevitably 
followed  by  a  reversion,  if  not  to  the  previous  type  in  its 
old  form,  yet  to  the  previous  type  in  a  superficially 
difierent  form. 

Illustrations  of  this  truth  are  arising  before  our  eyes. 
While  old  kinds  of  coercive  government  are  dissolving, 
new  kinds  of  coercive  government  are  evolving.  The 
rule  of  the  monarch  and  the  landed  class,  unqualified  in 
feudal  days,  and  in  part  replaced  by  the  rule  of  the 
middle  class  after  the  Reform  Bill,  has  since  then  been 
in  larger  part  replaced  by  that  of  the  working  class, 
which  is  fast  becoming  predominant.  But  the  temporary 
freedom  obtained  by  aboHshing  one  class  of  restraints, 
which  reached  its  chmax  about  the  middle  of  the  centmy, 
has  since  been  decreased  by  the  rise  of  another  class  of 
restraints,  and  will  presently  be  no  greater  than  it  was 
before.  We  have  been  living  in  the  midst  of  a  social  exu- 
viation, and  the  old  coercive  shell  having  been  cast  off,  a 
new  coercive  shell  is  in  course  of  development ;  for  in  our 
day,  as  in  past  days,  there  co-exist  the  readiness  to  coerce 
and  the  readiness  to  submit  to  coercion. 

Here,  then,  I  see  a  change  in  my  political  views  which 
has  become  increasingly  marked  with  increasing  years. 
Whereas,  in  the  days  of  early  enthusiasm,  I  thought  that 
all  would  go  well  if  governmental  aiTangements  were 
transformed,  I  now  think  that  transformations  in  govern- 
mental arrangements  can  be  of  use  only  in  so  far  as  they 
express  the  transformed  natures  of  citizens. 

Less  marked,  perhaps,  though  still  sufficiently  marked, 
is  a  modification  in  my  ideas  about  religious  institutions, 
which,  indicated  in  my  later  books,  has  continued  to  grow 
more  decided.     While  the  current  creed  was  slowly  losing 


Mt.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  467 

its  hold  on  me,  the  sole  question  seemed  to  be  the  truth  or 
untruth  of  the  particular  doctrines  I  had  been  taught. 
But  gradually,  and  especially  of  late  years,  I  have  become 
aware  that  this  is  not  the  sole  question. 

Partly,  the  wider  knowledge  obtained  of  human  socie- 
ties has  caused  this.  Many  have^,  I  beheve,  recognized  the 
fact  that  a  cult  of  some  sort,  with  its  social  embodiment,  is 
a  constituent  in  every  society  which  has  made  any  pro- 
gress ;  and  this  has  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  control 
exercised  over  men's  conduct  by  theological  beliefs  and 
priestly  agency,  has  been  indispensable.  The  masses  of 
evidence  classified  and  arranged  in  the  Descriptive  Sociology, 
have  forced  this  belief  upon  me  independently :  if  not 
against  my  will,  still  without  any  desire  to  entertain  it. 
So  conspicuous  are  the  proofs  that  among  unallied  races 
in  different  parts  of  the  globe,  progress  in  civilization  has 
gone  along  with  development  of  a  religious  system,  abso- 
lute in  its  dogmas  and  terrible  in  its  threatened  penalties, 
administered  by  a  powerful  priesthood,  that  there  seems 
no  escape  from  the  inference  that  the  maintenance  of 
social  subordination  has  peremptorily  required  the  aid  of 
some  such  agency. 

Much  astonishment  may,  indeed,  reasonably  be  felt  at 
the  ineffectiveness  of  threats  and  promises  of  supposed 
supernatural  origin.  European  history,  dyed  through  and 
through  with  crime,  seems  to  imply  that  fear  of  hell  and 
hope  of  heaven  ha^'e  had  small  effects  on  men.  Even  at 
the  present  moment,  the  absolute  opposition  between  the 
doctrine  of  forgiveness  preached  by  a  hundred  thousand 
European  priests,  and  the  actions  of  European  soldiers  and 
colonists  who  out-do  the  law  of  blood-revenge  among 
savages,  and  massacre  a  village  in  retahation  for  a  single 
death,  shows  that  two  thousand  years  of  Christian  culture 
has  changed  the  primitive  barbarian  very  little.  And  yet 
one  cannot  but  conclude  that  it  has  had  some  effect,  and 
may  infer  that  in  its  absence  things  would  have  been  worse. 

3u* 


468  REFLECTIONS,  [1893. 

At  any  rate,  it  is  clear  that,  with  men  as  they  have  been 
and  are,  the  ultimate  reasons  for  good  conduct  are  too 
remote  and  shadowy  to  be  operative.  If  prospect  of 
definite  eternal  torture  fails  to  restrain,  still  more  must  pro- 
spect of  indefinite  temporal  evil  fail.  When  we  study  the 
thoughts  of  the  average  British  elector,  who  can  conceive 
no  reason  for  voting  thus  or  thus  save  some  material  ad- 
vantage to  be  gained,  we  may  see  that  threats  and  promises 
of  intense  pains  and  vivid  pleasures  are  alone  likely  to 
influence  his  conduct  in  marked  ways. 

Then,  again,  there  is  the  truth,  which  is  becoming  more 
and  more  manifest,  that  real  creeds  continually  diverge 
from  nominal  creeds,  and  adapt  themselves  to  new  social 
and  individual  requirements.  The  contrast  between  medi- 
aeval Christianity  and  the  present  Christianity  of  pro- 
testant  countries,  or  again  the  contrast  between  the  belief 
in  a  devil  appointed  to  torment  the  wicked,  strenuously 
held  early  in  this  century,  and  the  spreading  denial  both 
of  a  devil  and  of  eternal  punishment,  or  again  the  recent 
expression  of  opinion  by  a  Roman  Catholic  that  there  may 
be  happiness  in  hell,  suffice  to  show  the  re-moulding  of 
what  is  nominally  the  same  creed  into  what  is  practically 
a  quite  different  creed.  And  when  we  observe,  too,  how 
in  modem  preaching  theological  dogmas  are  dropping  into 
the  background  and  ethical  doctrines  coming  into  the  fore- 
ground, it  seems  that  in  course  of  time  we  shall  reach  a  stage 
in  which,  recognizing  the  mystery  of  things  as  insoluble, 
religious  organizations  will  be  devoted  to  ethical  culture. 

Thus  I  have  come  more  and  more  to  look  calmly  on 
forms  of  religious  belief  to  which  I  had,  in  earlier  days,  a 
pronounced  aversion.  Holding  that  they  are  in  the  main 
naturally  adapted  to  their  respective  peoples  and  times,  it 
now  seems  to  me  well  that  they  should  severally  live  and 
work  as  long  as  the  conditions  permit,  and,  fui-ther,  that 
sudden  changes  of  religious  institutions,  as  of  political 
institutions,  are  certain  to  be  followed  by  reactions. 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  469 

If  it  be  asked  why,  thinking  thus,  I  have  persevered  in 
setting  forth  views  at  variance  with  current  creeds,  my 
reply  is  the  one  elsewhere  made  : — It  is  for  each  to  utter 
that  which  he  sincerely  believes  to  be  true,  and,  adding 
his  imit  of  influence  to  all  other  units,  leave  the  results  to 
work  themselves  out. 

Largely,  however,  if  not  chiefly,  this  change  of  feeling 
towards  religious  creeds  and  their  sustaining  institutions, 
has  resulted  from  a  deepening  conviction  that  the  sphere 
occupied  by  them  can  never  become  an  unfilled  sphere,  but 
that  there  must  continue  to  arise  afresh  the  great  ques- 
tions concerning  ourselves  and  surrounding  things  ;  and 
that,  if  not  positive  answers,  then  modes  of  consciousness 
standing  in  place  of  positive  answers,  must  ever  remain. 

We  find,  indeed,  an  unreflective  mood  general  among 
both  cultured  and  uncultured,  characterized  by  indifference 
to  everything  beyond  material  interests  and  the  super- 
ficial aspects  of  things.  There  are  the  many  millions  of 
people  who  daily  see  sunrise  and  sunset  without  ever 
asking  what  the  Sun  is.  There  are  the  university  men, 
interested  in  linguistic  criticism,  to  whom  inquiries  con- 
cerning the  origin  and  nature  of  living  things  seem  trivial. 
And  even  among  men  of  science  there  are  those  who, 
curiously  examining  the  spectra  of  nebulaa  or  calculating 
the  masses  and  motions  of  double-stars,  never  pause 
to  contemplate  under  other  than  physical  aspects  the 
immeasurably  vast  facts  they  record.  But  in  both  cultured 
and  uncultured  there  occur  lucid  intervals.  Some,  at 
least,  either  fill  the  vacuum  by  stereotyped  answers,  or 
become  conscious  of  unanswered  questions  of  transcendent 
moment.  By  those  who  know  much,  more  than  by  those 
who  know  little,  is  there  felt  the  need  for  explanation. 
Whence  this  process,  inconceivable  however  symbolized, 
by  which  alike  the  monad  and  the  man  build  themselves 
up  into  their  respective  structures  ?     What  must  we  say 


470  REFLECTIONS.  [1893. 

of  the  life,  minute,  multitudinous,  degraded,  which,  cover- 
ing the  ocean-floor,  occupies  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the 
Earth's  area;  and  which  yet,  growing  and  decajing  in 
utter  darkness,  presents  hundreds  of  species  of  a  single 
type  ?  Or,  when  we  think  of  the  myriads  of  years  of  the 
Earth's  past,  during  which  have  arisen  and  passed  away 
low  forms  of  creatures,  small  and  great,  which,  murdering 
and  beiiig  murdered,  have  gradually  evolved,  how  shall 
we  answer  the  question — To  what  end?  Ascending  to 
wider  problems,  in  which  way  are  we  to  interpret  the  life- 
lessness  of  the  greater  celestial  masses — the  giant  planets 
and  the  Sun  ;  in  proportion  to  which  the  habitable  planets 
are  mere  nothings  ?  If  we  pass  from  these  relatively  near 
bodies  to  the  thirty  millions  of  remote  suns  and  solar 
systems,  where  shall  we  find  a  reason  for  all  this  ap- 
parently unconscious  existence^  infinite  in  amount  com- 
pared with  the  existence  which  is  conscious — a  waste 
Universe  as  it  seems  ?  Then  behind  these  mysteries  lies 
the  all-embracing  mystery — whence  this  universal  trans- 
formation which  has  gone  on  unceasingly  throughout  a  past 
eternity  and  will  go  on  unceasingly  throughout  a  future 
eternity?  And  along  with  this  rises  the  paralyzing 
thought — what  if,  of  all  that  is  thus  incomprehensible  to 
us,  there  exists  no  comprehension  anywhere  ?  No  wonder 
that  men  take  refuge  in  authoritative  dogma ! 

So  is  it,  too,  with  our  own  natures.  No  less  inscrutable 
is  this  complex  consciousness  which  has  slowly  evolved 
out  of  infantine  vacuity — consciousness  which,  in  other 
shapes,  is  manifested  by  animate  beings  at  large — conscious- 
ness which,  during  the  development  of  every  creature, 
makes  its  appearance  out  of  what  seems  unconscious 
matter;  suggesting  the  thought  that  consciousness  in 
some  rudimentary  form  is  omnipresent.  Lastly  come  the 
insoluble  questions  concerning  our  own  fate :  the  evidence 
seeming  so  strong  that  the  relations  of  mind  and  nervous 
structure  are  such  that  cessation  of  the  one  accompanies 


^T.  73.]  REFLECTIONS.  4tl 

dissolution  of  the  other,  while,  eimiiltaneotisly,  comes  the 
thought,  so  strange  and  so  difficult  to  realize,  that  with 
death  there  lapses  both  the  consciousness  of  existence  and 
the  consciousness  of  having  existed. 

Thus  religious  creeds,  which  in  one  way  or  other  occupy 
the  sphere  that  rational  intei-pretation  seeks  to  occupy 
and  fails,  and  fails  the  more  the  more  it  seeks,  I  have 
come  to  regard  with  a  sympathy  based  on  community  of 
need :  feeling  that  dissent  from  them  results  from  inability 
to  accept  the  solutions  offered,  joined  with  the  wish  that 
solutions  could  be  found. 


THE   END, 


APPENDICES 


TO 


VOL.    II. 


A  NOTE. 

[  WJiere  to  place  the  following  two  letters  has  been  a  question 
not  easily  answered,  for  no  place  seems  quite  appropriate.  After 
miich  consideration  I  have  decided  that  they  shotdd  be  inserted 
here  raiher  than  elsewhere,'] 

5  Percival  Terrace, 

Brighton, 

Nov.  21,  1900. 
Deae  Mr.  Huxley, 

On  further  reading  your  very  interesting  Life  of  your 
father,  I  find  some  statements  of  personal  concern  which  will 
cause  much  misapprehension. 

Through  inadvertence,  passages  on  pages  333  of  vol.  I.  and 
266  and  68  of  vol.  II.  convey  the  impression  that  the  criticism 
of  my  proofs  by  your  father  extended  to  my  writings  at  large; 
and  a  phrase  of  yours  on  page  133  of  vol.  II.  implies  that  you 
have  yourself  derived  this  impression.  It  is  an  erroneous 
one.  Beyond  First  Principles  your  father  read  in  proof 
The  Principles  of  Biology,  a  biological  essay,  and  some 
chapters  concerning  the  nervous  system.  There  was  per- 
emptory need  for  expert  criticisms  on  these,  and  he  very 
kindly  gave  me  his  ;  but  I  did  not  ask  his  critical  aid  when 
writing  the  seven  volumes  dealing  with  Sociology,  Psychology, 
and  Ethics,  or  the  six  volumes  of  my  miscellaneous  works, 
save  the  15  pages  of  "  diabolical  dialectics  "  (ii.  185),  and  a 
chapter  entitled  "  Eeligious  Eetrospect  and  Pi-ospect."  This 
is  in  a  measure  implied  by  my  letter   accompanying   the 


476  A  NOTE- 

proofs  of  the  essay  on  "  The  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution  " — 
a  letter  in  which  I  spoke  of  habitually  submitting  "  my 
biological  writing  to  your  [his]  castigation  "  (il  127) ;  for  had 
the  practice  been  general  I  evidently  should  not  have  limited 
the  statement  to  biological  writing. 

A  word  concerning  the  unpublished  Autobiography.  Read- 
ing of  proofs  by  friends  (your  father  being  one)  was  to  be  a 
check  on  errors  of  taste.  The  parts  your  father  saw  amounted 
to  about  a  third. 

When  saying,  h  propos  of  his  role  of  "  devil's  advocate," 
that  "  there  is  no  telling  how  many  brilliant  speculations  I 
have  been  the  means  of  choking  in  an  embryonic  state,"  your 
father  was  venting  one  of  his  facetious  exaggerations.  A 
comparison  between  the  original  MSS.  and  the  printed  books, 
made  by  my  secretary  to  whom  I  dictate  this  letter,  shows 
that  in  the  three  volumes  above  named  there  are  four  passages 
of  a  speculative  kind  in  the  MS.  which  have  disappeared  from 
the  printed  text.  [Let  me  add  that  of  the  two  omitted  from 
The  Principles  of  Biology  one  concerned  the  derivation  of  the 
vertebrate  type  from  the  ascidian  type — a  speculation  which 
not  long  after  received  support  from  the  discoveries  of 
Kowalewsky.  I  afterwards  gave  it  a  place  in  Appendix  D 
of  vol  IL] 

As  shown  by  a  letter  you  have  partly  quoted,  I  have 
expressed  my  grateful  sense  of  your  father's  "invaluable 
critical  aid,"  but  naturally  I  do  not  wish  this  to  be  under- 
stood as  having  been  far  greater  than  it  was. 

Whatever  changes  you  may  make  in  future  editions  for 

the  purpose  of  preventing  misapprehensions,  cannot  of  course 

be  known  to  readers  of  the  current  edition.     Yet  I  am  not 

content  that  they  should  remain  in  error.     Wliat  should  be 

done? 

Truly  yours, 

Herbert  Spenceb. 


A  NOTE.  477 

In  response  to  this  appeal  Mr.  Huxley  published  the 
following  letter  in  The  Athenceiim  for  December  8,  1900. 

HUXLEY'S   LIFE. 

November  28,  1900. 

It  has  been  suggested  to  me  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  that 
a  phrase  of  mine  in  the  Life  and  Letters  of  T.  E.  Hiuxley 
(vol.  II.  p.  133)  might  give  rise  to  a  false  impression  touching 
the  extent  to  which  my  father  used  to  criticize  the  proofs 
of  Mr.  Spencer's  published  writings.  The  words  "from 
whom  [viz.,  Mr.  Spencer]  he  had,  according  to  custom,  re- 
ceived some  proofs  to  read,"  refer,  of  course,  to  the  "  biologi- 
cal writings  "  mentioned  in  Mr.  Spencer's  letter  quoted  on 
p.  127.  Besides  such  biological  writings,  my  father  read 
in  proof  only  First  Principles  and  two  small  fragments 
amounting  to  thirty-two  pages.  I  do  not  suppose  that  those 
who  have  any  knowledge  of  the  subject  will  imagine  that 
he  criticized  the  proofs  of  Mr.  Spencer's  writings  at  large ; 
but  I  should  be  sorry  to  think  that  I  had  possibly  suggested 
a  false  notion  to  others. 

Your  readers  will  hardly  need  telling  that  epistolary 
humour  is  not  always  to  be  taken  literally,  and  that  the 
phrase  about  his  being  "devil's  advocate"  to  Mr.  Spencer 
(i.  333) — "  There  is  no  telling  how  many  brilliant  specula- 
tions I  have  been  the  means  of  choking  in  an  embryonic 
state  " — is  meant  rather  as  a  consolation  for  a  young  worker 
in  biological  science,  to  whom  my  father  proposed  to  act  in 
the  same  useful,  if  ungrateful  capacity,  than  as  a  definite 
statement  as  to  Mr.  Spencer's  biological  writings,  in  which,  I 
understand,  a  comparison  of  the  MSS.  with  the  printed 
volumes  shows  the  removal  of  but  four*  such  speculative 
passages  during  the  proof  stage. 

[*  Not  quite  correct.  There  were  two  in  First  Frinciples  and  two  in  tho 
Biology.'] 


478  A  NOTE. 

But  the  period  assigned  to  this  "  devil's  advocacy,"  going 
back  "  thirty  odd  years "  from  1884  to  the  beginning  of 
my  father's  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Spencer,  indicates  that 
the  playful  allusion  must  be  as  much  to  the  informal  dia- 
lectics of  conversation  as  to  serious  written  work,  for  the 
reading  of  proofs  referred  to  above  only  began  with  the 
Synthetic  Philosophy  in  1860. 

L.  Huxley. 

It  is  manifestly  needful  that  I  should  give  a  permanent 
place  to  these  letters.  Were  they  to  disappear,  the  one 
privately  and  the  other  in  an  ephemeral  publication,  the 
first  edition  of  Professor  Huxley's  Life  and  Letters  would 
establish  everywhere  the  belief  that  my  writings  at  large 
had  had  the  benefit  of  his  criticisms,  and  that  had  it  not 
been  for  his  restraints  I  should  have  set  forth  numerous 
ill-based  speculations  in  the  thirteen  volumes  treating  of 
Psychology,  Sociology,  Ethics,  and  miscellaneous  subjects. 


APPENDIX   A. 


\_The  folloiving programme  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy,  issued  in  ike 
spring  of  i860,  though  quoted  in  the  preface  to  "  First  Principles,^^  is 
given  here  as  being  a  biographical  document.  A  further  reason  for 
re-quoting  it  is  that  opportunity  is  afforded  for  appendi^ig  the  naines 
of  the  first  subscribers,  which  are  not  without  ititerest,'] 


A   SYSTEM   OF   PHILOSOPHY. 

Mb.  Herbert  Spencer  proposes  to  issue  in  periodical  parts,  a 
connected  series  of  works  which  he  has  for  several  years  been 
preparing.  Some  couception  of  the  general  aim  and  scope  of 
this  series  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  Programme. 


FIEST     PEINCIPLES. 

Pabt  I.  The  Unknowable. — Carrying  a  step  further  the  doctrine 
put  into  shape  by  Hamilton  and  Mansel;  pointing  out  the  various 
directions  in  which  Science  leads  to  the  same  conclusions ;  and 
showing  that  in  this  united  belief  in  an  Absolute  that  transcends 
not  only  human  knowledge  but  human  conception,  lies  the  only 
possible  reconciliation  of  Science  and  Eeligion. 

II.  Laws  of  the  Knowable.— A  statement  of  the  ultimate  principles 
discernible  throughout  all  manifestations  of  the  Absolute  —  those 
highest  generalizations  now  being  disclosed  by  Science,  which  are 
severally  true  not  of  one  class  of  phenomena  but  of  all  classes  of 
phenomena  ;  and  which  are  thus  the  keys  to  all  classes  of  phenomena.* 

[_In  logical  order  should  here  come  the  application  of  these  First 
Princijyles  to  Inorganic  Nature.  But  this  great  division  it  is  proposed 
to  pass  over  :  partly  because,  even  tvithout  it,  the  scheme  is  too  extensive  ; 
and  partly  because  the  interpretation  of  Organic  Nature  after  the  pro- 
posed method,  is  of  more  immediate  importance.  The  second  work  of  the 
series  will  therefore  be — ] 

•  One  of  these  generalizations  is  that  currently  known  as  "  the  conserva- 
tion of  force ;  "  a  second  may  be  gathered  from  a  published  essay  on 
"Progress:  its  Law  and  Cause;"  a  third  is  indicated  in  a  paper  on 
"Transcendental  Physiology  ;'  and  there  are  several  others. 


480  APPENDIX  A. 

THE  PEINCIPLES  OF  BIOLOGY. 
Vol.  I. 
Paet  I.  The  Data  of  Biology. — Including  those  general  truths  of 
Physics  and  Chemistry  with  which  rational  Biology  must  set  out. 

II.  The  Ikductions  op  Biology. — A  statement  of  the  leading  gener- 
alizations which  Naturahsts.Physiologists,  and  Comparative  Anatomists, 
have  established. 

III.  The  Evolution  ov  Life. — Concerning  the  speculation  com- 
monly known  as  '*  The  Development  Hypothesis  " — its  a  priori  and  a 
posteriori  evidences. 

Vol.  XL 

IV.  Morphological  Development. — Pointing  out  the  relations 
that  are  everywhere  traceable  between  organic  forms  and  the  average 
of  the  various  forces  to  which  they  are  subject ;  and  seeking  in  the 
cumulative  effects  of  such  forces  a  theo^  of  the  forms. 

V.  Physiological  Development. — The  progressive  differentiation 
of  functions  similarly  traced  ;  and  similarly  interpreted  as  consequent 
upon  the  exposure  of  different  parts  of  organisms  to  difEerent  sets  of 
conditions. 

VI.  The  Laws  of  Multiplication. — Generalizations  respecting  the 
rates  of  reproduction  of  the  various  classes  of  plants  and  animals ; 
followed  by  an  attempt  to  show  the  dependence  of  these  variations 
upon  certain  necessary  causes.* 


THE    PEINCIPLES    OF    PSYCHOLOGY. 

Vol.  I. 

Pabt  I.  The  Data  of  Psychology.  —  Treating  of  the  general 
connexions  of  Mind  and  Life,  and  their  relations  to  other  modes  of 
the  Unknowable. 

II.  The  Inductions  of  Psychology. — A  digest  of  such  generali- 
zations respecting  mental  phenomena  as  have  already  been  empirically 
established.     [This  proved  to  be  a  very  inadequate  description.] 

III.  General  Synthesis. — A  republication,with  additional  chapters, 
of  the  same  part  in  the  already -published  Principles  of  F  sycliology . 

IV.  Special  Synthesis. — A  republication,  with  extensive  revisions 
and  additions,  of  the  same  part,  &c.  &c. 

V.  Physical  Synthesis. — An  attempt  to  show  the  manner  in  which 
the  succession  of  states  of  consciousness  conforms  to  a  certain  funda- 
mental law  of  nervous  action  that  follows  from  the  First  Principles 
laid  down  at  the  outset. 

*  The  ideas  to  be  developed  in  the  second  volume  of  the  Principles  of 
Biology  the  writer  has  already  briefly  expressed  in  sundry  Eeview  Articles. 
Part  IV.  will  work  out  a  doctrine  suggested  in  a  paper  on  "  The  Laws  oi 
Organic  Form,"  published  in  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Eeview  for  January 
1859.  The  germ  of  Part  V.  is  contained  in  an  essay  on  "  Transcendental 
Physiology:"  See  E$says,  pp.  280-90.  And  in  Part  VI.  will  be  unfolded 
certain  views  crudely  expressed  in  a  "  Theory  of  Population,"  published  in 
the  Westminster  Ileview  for  April  1852. 


APPENDIX  A,  481 

Vol.  n. 

VI,  Special  Analysis. — As  at  present  published,  but  further 
elaborated  by  some  additional  chapters. 

VII.  General  Analysis. — As  at  present  published,  with  several 
explanations  and  additions. 

VITI.  Coeollaeies.— Consisting  in  part  of  a  number  of  derivative 
principles  which  form  a  necessary  introduction  to  Sociology.* 

THE   PEIlSrCIPLES    OF    SOCIOLOGY. 

Vol.  I. 

Paet  I.  The  Data  op  Sociology. — A  stateipent  of  the  several  sets 
of  factors  entering  into  social  phenomena — human  ideas  and  feelings 
considered  in  their  necessary  order  of  evolution  ;  surrounding  natuml 
conditions ;  and  those  ever-complicating  conditions  to  which  Society 
itself  gives  origin. 

II.  The  Inductions  of  Sociology. — General  facts,  structural  and 
functional,  as  gathered  from  a  survey  of  Societies  and  their  changes  : 
in  other  words,  the  empirical  generalizations  that  are  arrived  at  by 
comparing  different  societies,  and  successive  phases  of  the  same 
society. 

III.  Political  Oeganization. — The  evolution  of  governments, 
general  and  local,  as  determined  by  natural  causes ;  their  several 
types  and  metamorphoses  ;  their  increasing  complexity  and  specializa- 
tion ;  and  the  progressive  limitation  of  their  functions. 

Vol.  II. 

IV.  Ecclesiastical  Oeganization. — Tracing  the  differentiation  of 
religious  government  from  secular;  its  successive  complications  and 
the  multiplication  of  sects ;  the  growth  and  continued  modification  of 
religious  ideas,  as  caused  by  advancing  knowledge  and  changing 
moral  character ;  and  the  gradual  reconciliation  of  these  ideas  with 
the  truths  of  abstract  science. 

V.  Cekemonial  Oeganization. — The  natural  history  of  that  third 
kind  of  government  which,  having  a  common  root  with  the  others, 
and  slowly  becoming  separate  from  and  supplementary  to  them,  serves 
to  regulate  the  minor  actions  of  life. 

VI.  Industeiax  Organization. — The  development  of  productive 
and  distributive  agencies,  considered,  like  the  foregoing,  in  its 
necessary  causes  :  comprehending  not  only  the  progressive  division  of 
labour,  and  the  increasing  complexity  of  each  industrial  agency,  but 
also  the  successive  forms  of  industrial  government  as  passing  through 
like  phases  with  political  government. 

Vol.  III. 

VII.  Lingual  Peogeess. — The  evolution  of  Languages  regarded  as 
a  psychological  process  determined  by  social  conditions. 

*  Bespecting  the  several  additions  to  be  made  to  the  Principles  of  Psych- 
ology, it  seems  needful  only  to  say  that  Part  V.  is  the  unwritten  division 
named  in  the  preface  to  that  work — a  division  of  which  the  germ  is  contained 
in  a  note  on  page  544,  and  of  which  the  scope  has  since  been  more  definitely 
stated  in  a  paper  in  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Review  for  Jan.  1859. 

'61* 


482  APPENDIX  A. 

Vm.  Intblibctual  PfioGBEsa. — Treated  from  the  same  point  of 
view :  including  the  growth  of  classifications ;  the  evolution  of  science 
out  of  common  Knowledge ;  the  advance  from  qualitative  to  quantitative 
prevision,  from  the  indefinite  to  the  definite,  and  from  the  concrete  to 
the  abstract. 

IX.  -.Esthetic  Peosbbss. — The  Fine  Arts  similarly  dealt  with  : 
tracing  their  gradual  difEerentiation  from  primitive  institutions  and 
from  each  other ;  their  increasing  varieties  of  development ;  and  their 
advance  in  reality  of  expression  and  superiority  of  aim. 

X.  MoEAL  Pbogeess. — Exhibiting  the  genesis  of  the  slow  emotional 
modifications  which  human  nature  \indergoes  in  its  adaptation  to  the 
social  state. 

XI.  The  Consenstjs. — Treating  of  the  necessary  interdependence 
of  structures  and  of  functions  in  each  type  of  society,  and  in  the  suc- 
cessive phases  of  social  development.* 


THE  PEINCIPLES  OF  MOEALITY. 

Vol.  I. 

Pabt  I.  The  Data  op  Mobalitt. — Generalizations  furnished  by 
Biology,  Psychology  and  Sociology,  which  underlie  a  true  theory  of 
right  living:  in  other  words,  the  elements  of  that  equilibrium  between 
constitution  and  conditions  of  existence,  which  is  at  once  the  moral 
ideal  and  the  limit  towards  which  we  are  progressing. 

II.  The  Inductions  of  Mobalitt. — Those  empirically-established 
rules  of  human  action  which  are  registered  as  essential  laws  by  all 
civilized  nations  :  that  is  to  say — the  generalizations  of  expediency. 

III.  Pebsonal  Mobals. — The  principles  of  private  conduct — 
physical,  intellectual,  moral  and  religious — that  follow  from  the  con- 
ditions of  complete  individual  life  :  or,  what  is  the  same  thing — those 
modes  of  private  action  which  must  result  from  the  eventual  equili- 
bration of  internal  desires  and  external  needs. 

Vol.  n. 

IV.  JusTiCB. — The  mutual  limitations  of  men's  actions  necessitated 
by  their  co-existence  as  units  of  a  society — limitations,  the  perfect 
observance  of  which  constitutes  that  state  of  equilibrium  forming  the 
goal  of  political  progress. 

V.  Negative  Beneficence. — Those  secondary  limitations,  similarly 
necessitated,  which,  though  less  important  and  not  cognizable  by  law, 
are  yet  requisite  to  prevent  mutual  destruction  of  happiness  in 

*  Of  this  treatise  on  Sociology  a  few  small  fragments  may  be  found  in 
already-published  essays.  Some  of  the  ideas  to  be  developed  in  Part  II.  are 
indicated  in  an  article  on  "The  Social  Organism,"  contained  in  the  last 
number  of  the  Westmintter  Review  ;  those  which  Part  V.  will  work  out,  may 
be  gathered  from  the  first  half  of  a  paper  written  some  years  since  on 
"  Manners  and  Fashion ;"  of  Part  VIII.  the  germs  are  contained  in  an  article 
on  the  *'  Genesis  of  Science ;"  two  papers  on  "  The  Origin  and  Function  of 
Music  "  and  "  The  Philosophy  of  Style,"  contain  some  ideas  to  be  embodied 
in  Part  IX. ;  and  from  a  criticism  of  Mr.  Bain's  work  on  "  The  Emotions  and 
the  Will,"  in  the  last  aumber  of  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Beview,  the  central 
idea  to  be  developed  in  Part  X.  may  be  inferred. 


APPENDIX  A,  483 

various  indirect  ways:  in  other  words — those  minor  self-reatraiiiU 
dictated  by  what  may  be  called  passive  sympathy. 

VI.  Positive  Beneficence. — Comprehending  all  modes  of  conduct, 
dictated  by  active  sympathy,  which  imply  pleasure  in  giving  pleasure 
— modes  of  conduct  that  social  adaptation  has  induced  and  must 
render  ever  more  general ;  and  which,  in  becoming  universal,  must 
fiU  to  the  full  the  possible  measure  of  human  happiness.* 

In  anticipation  of  the  obvious  criticism  that  the  scheme  here 
sketched  out  is  too  extensive,  it  may  be  remarked  that  an 
exhaustive  treatment  of  each  topic  is  not  intended  ;  but  simply 
the  establishment  of  principles,  with  such  illustrations  as  'are 
needed  to  make  their  bearings  fully  understood.  It  may  also  be 
pointed  out  that,  besides  minor  fragments,  one  large  division 
(The  Principles  of  Psychology)  is  already,  in  great  part,  executed. 
And  a  further  reply  is,  that  impossible  though  it  may  prove  to 
execute  the  whole,  yet  nothing  can  be  said  against  an  attempt  to 
set  forth  the  First  Principles  and  to  carry  their  applications  as 
far  as  circumstances  permit. 

It  is  proposed  to  publish  in  parts  of  from  five  to  six  sheets 
octavo  (80  to  96  pages).  These  parts  to  be  issued  quarterly  ;  or 
as  nearly  so  as  is  found  possible.  The  price  per  part  to  be  half-a- 
crown ;  that  is  to  say,  the  four  parts  yearly  issued  to  be  severally 
delivered,  post  free,  to  all  annual  subscribers  of  Ten  Shillings. 

Should  an  adequate  sale  be  insured  (on  which  contingency 
however  the  execution  of  the  projected  works  wholly  depends) 
the  first  part  will  appear  in  July  next. 
London,  March  27,  1860. 

*  Part  IV.  of  the  Principles  of  Morality  will  be  co-extensive  (though  not 
identical)  with  the  first  half  of  the  writer's  Social  Statics. 


Those  who  wish  to  take  in  the  proposed  serial  are  requested  to 
fill  up,  cut  off,  and  forward  {without  delay)  the  following  form  to 
Mr.  Manwaring,  8,  King  William  Street,  Strand,  London,  W.G. 
This  form  commits  the  subscriber  to  the  first  volume  only,  of  the 
series.  Lest  the  guaranteed  circulation  should  prove  insufficient,  no 
subscription  should  be  paid  until  the  issue  of  the  first  part  shows 
that  the  design  will  be  carried  out.  Copies  of  this  Circular,  for  dis- 
tribution, may  be  had  of  Mr.  Manwaeino. 

1860. 

Sir, 

Please  put  down  my  name  for  one  copy  of  the  first  of  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer's  projected  series  of  works  ;  and  let  the  successive 
parts  he  directed  to  me  as  below. 

Name . 

Address 

Mr.  Manwaring,  ^c,  Sfc. 

31* 


^84 


List  of  names  sent  in  up  to  the  date  at  which  this  circular  is 

issued  : — • 


JOHN  STUART  MILL,  ESQ. 
GEORGE  GROTB,  ESQ..  F.R.S. 
RIGHT  HON.  LORD  STANLEY,  M.P. 
CHARLES  DARWIN.  ESQ..  F.R.S., 

F.L.S.,  F.G.S. 
PROF,    HUXLEY,     F.R.S.,     F.L.S.. 

Sec.  G.S. 
NEIL  ARNOTT,  ESQ.,  M.D.,  F.R.S. 
ERASMUS  DARWIN,  ESQ. 
W.    B.    CARPENTER,    ESQ..   M.D., 

F.RS..  F.L.S..  F.G.S. 
GEORGE  ELIOT,  ESQ. 
R.  MONCKTON  MILNES,  ESQ..  M.P. 
OCTAVIUS  H.  SMITH,  ESQ. 
PROF.   SHARPBY.  M.D..  Sec.  R.S^ 

F.R.S.B. 
PROF.  DE  MORGAN. 
B.  JOHNSON.  ESQ..  M.D. 
B.  S.  DALLAS,  ESQ. 
J.     LOCKHART     CLARKE,     ESQ., 

F.RS. 
CHARLES  BABBA6E.  ESQ.,  F.RS., 

F.R.A.8,.  &c. 
W.  H.  RANSOM,  ESQ..  M.D. 
PROF.  GOLDWIN  SMITH. 
O.  DE  BEAUVOIR  PRIAULX.  ESQ. 
W.  H.  WALSHE.  ESQ.,  M.D. 
HEPWORTH  DIXON,  ESQ. 
DR.  FRANKLAND.  F.R.S. 
T.  SPENCER  BAYNES,  ESQ.,  LL.B. 
J.  CHAPMAN,  ESQ.,  M.D. 
PROF.    GRAHAM,    F.R.S.,     F.G.S., 

D.C.L..  4c. 
T.  L.  HUNT.  ESQ. 
H.  FALCONER.  ESQ.,  M.D.,  F.R.8.. 

F.L.S..  F.G.S. 
REV.  CHARLES  KINGSLEY,  F.L.S., 

F.S.A..  &C. 


SIR     CHARLES     LYELL.     F  RS., 

F.L.S. ,  F.G.S..  Ac. 
R.  G.  LATHAM,  ESQ.,  M.D.,  F.RS 
J.  D.  HOOKER,  ESQ.,  M.D..  F.R.S., 

F.L.S.,  F.G.S. 
PROF.  TYNDALL,  F.R.S. 
SIR   JOHN   TRELAWNEY,  BART.. 

M.P. 
PROP.  BUSK,  P.R.S.,  F.G.S..  F.L.S 
HENRY  T.  BUCKLE.  ESQ. 
PROF.  F.  W.  NEWMAN.  M.A. 
G.  H.  LEWES,  ESQ. 
H.    BENCE    JONES.    ESQ..    M.D., 

F.R.S. 
H.  DUNNING  MACLEOD,  ESQ. 
PROF.  MASSON.  M.A. 
H.  G.  ATKINSON,  ESQ.,  F.G.S. 
J.  D,  MORELL,  ESQ. 
B.  H.  8IEVEKING.  ESQ.,  M.D. 
COL.    SIR    PROBY    T.    CAUTLEY, 

K.C.B.,  F.R.S. 
R.  W.  MACKAY,  ESQ. 
PROP.     H.     D.     ROGERS.    F,R.S. 

F.G.S..  F.R.S.B.,  4c. 
DR  TRAVIS. 
REV.  W.  G.  CLARK. 
GEORGE  LOWE.  ESQ.,  O.B..  F.R.S.. 

F.G.S..  &c. 
ALEXANDER  BAIN.  ESQ. 
G.  DRYSDALE,  ESQ.,  M.D. 
PROF.  LAYCOCK.  F.R.S.B. 
E.  S.  PIGOTT,  ESQ. 
SIR  JAMES  CLARK,  BART.,  M.D., 

F.RS. 
J.  A.  FROUDE,  ESQ. 
SIR    HENRY    HOLLAND,   BART., 

M.D.,  F.R.S.,  F.G.S.,  &c. 
SIR    JOHN     HERSCHEL,    BART., 

F.R.S.,  F.R.A.S.,  F.G.S.,  4c. 


M.   CHARLES    DE    RfiMUSAT,  de 

rAcad6mie       Frangaise,      Ancien 
Ministre,  &c.,  4c. 
M.  JULES  SIMON,  Ancien  Professeur 
de    Philosophie  au     College    de 


France,  Ancien  Conseiller   d'Etat, 

4c. 
M.  EMILE  D.  FORGUES. 
M.  .IMEDEE  PICHOT,  D.M.,  Direc- 

tour  de  la  Reyue  Britannique. 


APPENDIX    B. 


[7%e  following  ts  the  letter  to  Mr.  G.  H.  Levies,  referred  to  at  the 
close  of  chapter  XL,  as  having  resulted  from  the  publication  of  the 
**  Reasons  for  dissenting  from  the  Philosophy  of  M.  Comte  ".] 


29  Bloomsbury  Sq.  W.C. 

March  21st,  1864. 
My  dear  Lewes, 

Thanks  for  your  criticisms,  some  of  which  are  important  as 
saving  me  from  an  over- statement  that  would  have  been  mis- 
chievous. "With  respect  to  the  others  I  will  briefly  reply  to  the 
most  important ;  and  after  troubling  you  to  read  these  replies  and 
my  comments  on  the  propositions  contained  in  your  two  notes,  I 
will  say  no  more  on  the  matter. 

I  was  wrong  in  the  assertion  that  Comte  repudiates  the  science 
of  mind:  I  should  have  said  the  subjective  analysis  of  mind. 
That  he  does  this  I  take  on  your  own  evidence ;  since  you  quote 
John  Mill  against  him  on  this  point. 

The  proposition  which  I  oppose  to  Comte's  proposition  of  the 
three  successive  states  theological,  metaphysical,  and  positive, 
you  say  is  "  by  no  means  a  counter- proposition  ".  When  Comte 
says  that  the  three  methods  are  "  different  and  even  radically 
opposed,''^  while  I  say  that  the  method  is  one  that  continues 
essentially  the  same ;  and  when  he  says  that  there  are  three 
possible  terminal  conceptions  while  I  say  there  is  but  one  possible 
terminal  conception  ;  it  seems  to  me  that  the  term  counter-pro- 
position is  well  warranted.  , 

I  have  not  read  Littre.  Harrison  named  the  fact  that  be 
had  replied  to  me,  and  I  have  as  yet  only  skimmed  the  chapter 
in  which  he  does  this  and  sought  elsewhere  for  my  name  to  see 
whether  he  anywhere  regards  me  as  a  partial  adherent.  As  he 
does  not  do  so  I  conceive  that  the  note  is  justified.  But  I  have 
put  a  note  recognizing  your  criticism  respecting  ideas  and 
emotions  ;  and  meeting  it. 

You  say  I  have  not  recognized  Comte's  "  conception  of  sociology 
as  a  science"  among  his  distinctive  doctrines.  I  do  not  see  that 
it  is  distinctive  of  him.  The  conception  that  there  is  a  social 
science  was  surely,  as  Masson  shows,  entertained  by  Vice  and 


486  APPENDIX  B. 

Kant — vaguely  if  you  like.  That  which  is  distinctive  of  Comte 
is  his  dahoration  of  the  conception.  Surely,  too,  you  will  not  deny 
that  there  have  been  other  conceptions  of  social  science  among 
the  German  thinkers,  however  wild  and  untenable.  Unless  you 
can  show  that  before  Comte  no  one  believed  that  social  pheno- 
mena conform  to  law,  you  cannot  say  that  the  conception  of 
social  science  is  distinctive  of  Comte. 

You  ask,  too,  why  I  do  not  put  down,  as  among  his  distinctive 
doctrines,  the  idea  of  a  philosophy  constructed  out  of  the 
sciences.  I  do  not  admit  this  to  be  distinctive  any  more  than 
the  other.  I  refer  you  to  your  own  History  of  Philosophy 
(p.  348) ,  in  proof  that  Bacon  had  an  idea  of  such  a  philosophy ; 
and,  as  far  as  it  goes,  a  very  true  one.  I  hold  that  his  assertion 
that  "unless  natural  philosophy  be  drawn  out  to  particular 
sciences ;  and  again,  unless  these  particular  sciences  be  brought 
back  again  to  natural  philosophy,"  involves  a  more  correct  con- 
ception of  the  relations  of  the  sciences  to  each  other  than  Comte's 
elaborated  hierarchy  of  the  sciences.  Bacon's  conception  is 
vague  and  true :  Comte's  conception  is  definite  and  untrue.  I 
really  cannot  see  that  the  notion  of  an  organization  of  the  sciences 
into  one  whole  can  be  claimed  for  Comte. 

You  protest  against  my  representing  Comte  as  excluding  the 
recognition  of  cause  from  the  positive  philosophy.  If  he  does 
not  do  so  what  becomes  of  his  alleged  distinction  between  the 
perfection  of  the  metaphysical  system  and  the  perfection  of  the 
positive  system. 

In  your  first  note  you  say  "when  Comte  insists  on  the  relativity 
of  knowledge  he  therby  postulates  an  Absolute,  as  you  do."  I 
do  not  see  how  you  can  say  this  if  you  mean  that  he  cojisciously 
or  avowedly  does  so.  Have  I  not  myself  joined  issue  with 
Hamilton  and  Mansel  on  this  very  point;  and  endeavoured  to 
show  that  the  existence  of  an  Absolute  is  necessarily  postulated 
though  they  have  not  recognized  this  necessity  ?  And  if  Hamilton 
and  Mansel  assert  the  relativity  of  knowledge  and  do  not 
recognize  the  implied  consciousness  of  existence  transcending 
knowledge,  is  it  not  legitimate  to  say  that  Comte  does  the  same 
when  there  are  his  own  words  to  show  it  ? 

One  of  the  implications  of  your  first  note,  and  of  our  conversa- 
tions, is  that  I  ought  to  recognize  myself  "indebted  to  Comte  as 
one  independent  thinker  may  be  indebted  to  a  predecessor."  I 
do  not  admit  that  I  am  reluctant  to  recognize  indebtedness  to 
predecessors  :  it  is  a  question  of  the  predecessor.  If  anyone  says 
that  had  von  Baer  never  written  I  should  not  be  doing  that 
which  I  now  am,  I  have  nothing  to  say  to  the  contrary — I  should 
reply  it  is  highly  probable.  But  because  I  am  deeply  indebted 
to  one  predecessor,  I  do  not  see  that  I  am  called  upon  to  admit 
indebtedness  to  another  when  I  am  unconscious  of  it. 


APPENDIX  B.  487 

Ton  say  that  you  may  have  thought  that  my  antagonistic 
attitude  towards  Comte  has  tended  to  suppress  the  growth  of  any 
consciousness  of  indebtedness  to  Comte.  Possibly.  But  allow 
me  to  point  out,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  attitude  of  Comte's 
disciples,  and  your  own  attitude  in  particular  as  expositor,  is  one 
which  inevitably  tends  to  generate  an  exaggerated  estimate  of 
Comte's  influence,  and  inevitably  tends  to  make  you  assume 
indebtedness  on  insuflBcient  grounds. 

Yon  say  that  Comte's  ideas  have  reached  hundreds  who  never 
saw  his  works.  This  is  perfectly  true.  If  you  mean  to  imply 
that  any  such  diffused  influence  affected  me  before  I  wrote  Social 
Statics,  I  say  it  is  out  of  the  question ;  for  my  reading  up  to  that 
time  had  been  wholly  confined  to  the  special  sciences,  and  to 
party-politics,  joined  with  miscellaneous  light  reading  and  an 
occasional  glance  into  the  elder  writers  on  philosophy.  The 
only  book  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  was  a  means  of  diffusing  any 
of  Comte's  ideas  was  Mill's  Logic;  and  this  I  did  not  read  until 
at  least  two  years  after  Social  Statics  was  written — a  fact  of 
which  you  will  I  believe  find  evidence  without  going  far. 
[Referring  to  George  Eliot,  who  had  presented  me  with  a  copy 
of  Mill's  Logic.'\ 

I  fancy  that  you  and  other  partial  adherents  of  Comte  mistake 
as  an  atmosphere  of  Comtean  thought,  what  is  nothing  else  than 
the  atmosphere  of  scientific  thought.  Those  whose  education  has 
been  mainly  literary,  are  unable  to  realize  the  mental  attitude  of 
those  whose  education  has  been  mainly  scientific — especially 
where  the  scientific  education  has  been  joined  to  scientific 
tendencies,  and  a  life  of  practical  science  continually  illustrating 
theoretic  science,  as  in  my  own  case.  How  little  influence 
Comte's  teachings  have  had  on  scientific  thinking  in  England, 
will  be  shown  by  the  accompanying  paragraph ;  which  I  sup- 
pressed from  my  appendix  from  the  desire  to  avoid  seeming 
needlessly  hostile. 

And  now  let  me  deal  with  your  two  most  specific  points, 
taking  first  the  question  of  the  Sociology.  You  say — "Was  not 
Comte  the  one  who  attempted  to  construct  a  Sociology  on  the 
positive  method — and  is  not  that  your  aim  also  ?"  If  you  say 
that  here  is  a  resemblance,  you  say  truly.  If  you  say  that  here 
is  priority  on  the  part  of  Comte,  you  say  truly.  If  you  say  that 
here  is  indebtedness  on  my  part,  I  do  not  admit  it.  If  you 
believe  that  I  was  acquainted  with  Comte's  ideas  before  Social 
Statics  was  written,  you  may  suppose  that  I  derived  the  notion 
of  a  social  organism  (which  is  the  only  point  of  community 
between  us)  from  him  ;  but  if  you  do  not  suppose  this,  I  do  not 
see  what  grounds  you  have  for  the  assumption  that  I  am  here 
in  any  way  indebted  to  Comte.  The  conception  of  Social 
Science  which  I  have  now,  differs  in  nothing  except  further 


488  APPENDIX  B. 

development  from  the  conception  set  forth  in  Social  Statics, 
With  the  exception  of  quite  minor  ethical  propositions,  I  hold  to 
all  that  is  in  Social  Statics ;  and  in  the  various  political  essays 
which  I  have  since  written,  have  shown  its  further  development 
hy  the  addition  of  conceptions  which  I  have  proved,  by  the 
analysis  I  sent  you,  to  be  neither  allied  to  those  of  Comte  nor 
suggested  by  them.  I  contend  that,  starting  with  Social 
Statics,  passing  through  these  several  steps  to  the  wider  general- 
ization of  social  phenomena  given  in  the  essay  on  Progress, 
and  from  thence  by  other  steps  to  the  views  which  I  now  hold, 
there  is  a  development  on  hues  of  organization  that  cannot  be 
traced  to  him ;  but  are  manifestly  traceable  to  the  extension  of 
von  Baer's  principle,  and  to  the  rationalization  of  it  which  I 
have  since  attempted.  [This  statement,  along  with  some 
preceding  and  succeeding  ones,  and  along  with  a  passage  in  the 
**  Reasons  for  dissenting  from  the  Philosophy  of  M.  Comte," 
make  it  clear  that  I  had,  in  1864,  forgotten  some  of  the  ideas 
reached  in  1850  ;  for  on  pp.  451-53  of  Social  Statics,  where 
individual  organisms  and  social  organisms  are  shown  to  be 
similar  in  the  respect  that  progress  from  low  types  to  high  types 
is  progress  from  uniformity  of  structure  to  multiformity  of 
structure,  there  is,  in  so  far,  and  in  other  words,  a  recognition  of 
the  law  which  von  Baer  formulated  in  respect  of  the  develop- 
ment of  each  organism,  as  a  progress  from  homogeneity  to 
heterogeneity.] 

The  other  important  point  is  that  raised  in  your  question — 
"  Was  not  Comte  the  man  who  first  constructed  a  Philosophy 
out  of  the  separate  sciences — and  is  not  that  your  aim  also  "  ? 
Here,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  chief  source  of  difBerence  between  us. 
I  venture  to  think  that  you  are  assimilating  two  wholly 
different  things — endeavouring  to  establish  a  lineal  descent 
between  systems  which  are  not  only  generically  distinct  or 
ordinally  distinct,  but  which  belong  to  distinct  classes.  What  is 
Comte' s  prof  essed  aim  ?  To  give  a  coherent  account  of  the  progress 
of  human  conceptions.  What  is  my  aim  ?  To  give  a  coherent 
account  of  the  progress  of  the  external  world.  Comte  proposes  to 
describe  the  necessary,  and  the  actual,  filiation  of  ideas.  I 
propose  to  describe  the  necessary,  and  the  actual,  filiation  of 
things.  Comte  professes  to  interpret  the  genesis  of  our  knowledge 
of  nature.  My  aim  is  to  interpret,  as  far  as  it  is  possible,  the 
genesis  of  the  phenomena  which  constitute  nature.  The  one  end 
is  subjective.  The  other  is  objective.  How  then  can  the  one  be 
the  originator  of  the  other  ?  If  I  had  taken  the  views  briefly 
set  down  in  The  Genesis  of  Science,  and  developed  them  into  an 
elaborate  system  showing  the  development  and  co-ordination  of 
human  knowledge  in  pursuance  of  a  theory  at  variance  with 
that  of  Comte ;  then  you  might  rightly  have  said  that  the  one 


APPENDIX  B.  489 

was  snggested  by  the  other.  Then  yon  might  rightly  have 
asked — "  Was  not  Comte  the  man  who  first  constructed  a 
Philosophy  ont  of  the  separate  sciences — and  is  not  that  your 
aim  also  ?"  A  philosophy  of  the  sciences  has  a  purely  abstract 
subject-matter.  A  philosophy  of  nature  has  a  purely  concrete 
subject-matter,  and  how  the  one  can  beget  the  other  I  do  not 
see.  A  concrete  may  beget  an  abstract ;  but  how  an  abstract 
begets  a  concrete  is  not  manifest.  Comte's  system  is  avowedly 
an  Organon  of  the  Sciences.  The  scheme  at  which  I  am  working 
has  been  called  by  Martineau  a  Cosmogony.  Surely  in  the 
generation  of  thought,  an  Organon  should  give  origin  to  an 
Organon  and  a  Cosmogony  to  a  Cosmogony.  If  you  look  for 
my  predecessors,  and  if  you  point  to  the  Cosmogonies  of  Hegel 
and  Oken  as  being  conceptions  which  may  have  influenced  me, 
I  do  not  say  nay  :  I  knew  the  general  natures  of  Hegel's  and 
Oken's  Cosmogonies,  and  widely  different  as  their  conceptions 
are  from  my  own,  they  are  conceptions  of  the  same  class,  and 
may  very  possibly  have  had  some  suggestive  influence.*  But 
why,  in  seeking  the  parentage  of  the  Cosmogony  at  which  I  am 
working,  you  should  pass  over  antecedent  Cosmogonies,  and  fix 
on  an  Organon  of  the  Sciences  for  its  parent,  is  more  than 
I  understand. 

And  now,  having  pointed  out  what  I  conceive  to  be  the 
fundamental  difference  between  the  natures  and  aims  of  Comte's 
scheme  and  my  own  (which  your  question  assumes  to  be  the 
same  in  nature  and  aim)  let  me  take  a  further  step.  Looking 
at  it  from  this  new  point  of  view,  glance  through  the  essay  on 
Progress.  Having  done  this,  ask  yourself,  in  the  first  place, 
whether  you  see  any  Comtean  inspiration  in  that — whether  you 
see  in  it  anything  more  than  the  extension  of  '  von  Baer's 
principle  and  the  endeavour  to  interpret  that  principle 
deductively  ?  You  must  I  think  answer — No.  In  the  second 
place,  ask  yourself  whether  there  are  not  in  that  essay  the 
rudiments  of  the  scheme  which  is  developed  in  First  Principles. 
You  cannot  but  answer — ^Yes.  And  then,  in  the  third  place, 
ask,  is  it  so  foreign  to  my  nature  to  go  on  further  developing 
ideas,  that  you  cannot  believe  that  the  last  of  these  has  grown 
out  of  the  first  ?  In  the  essay  on  Progress  there  is  a  rudi- 
mentary Cosmogony.  In  First  Principles  there  is  a  more 
elaborated  Cosmogony.  Is  it  unnatural  that  the  one  should  in 
the  course  of  some  years  have  evolved  the  other  ? 

*  Sixteen  years  after  this  letter  was  written,  the  analogy  between  the 
Synthetic  Philosophy  and  the  system  of  Hegel,  in  so  far  as  the  subject 
matter  is  concerned,  was  alleged  by  Mons.  Carrau.  In  an  article 
pubhshed  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondcs  on  1st  April,  1880,  he  said : — 
"  C'est  rEncyclop6die  de  Hegel  refaite  au  point  de  vue  de  la  m^thode 
ezp^rimentale." 


490  APPENDIX    B. 

Even  while  I  write  I  am  reminded  of  evidence  on  this  point, 
which,  however  inconclusive  it  may  be  to  others,  is  perfectly 
conclusive  to  myself;  and  makes  me  more  than  ever  certain 
of  the  truth  of  my  denial.  You  may  remember  that  at  the  end 
of  1858  or  beg^ning  of  1859,  I  made  an  effort  to  obtain  some 
appointment,  which  should  give  me  sufficient  means  and  leisure 
to  do  that  which  I  am  now  doing.  I  have  a  distinct  recollection 
of  then  explaining  to  Mr.  Grote,  who  took  some  interest  in  the 
matter,  that  my  purpose  was  to  elaborate  the  ideas  contained  in 
the  essay  on  Progress,  which  had  then  taken  a  larger  develop- 
ment. And  if  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  keeps  his  letters,  I  am  greatly 
mistaken  if  it  cannot  be  shown  by  the  correspondence  I  then 
had  with  him,  that  I  gave  him  the  same  explanation  of 
my  aims.* 

Whether  you  do  or  do  not  continue  to  think  as  you  did  on  this 
matter,  you  will  at  any  rate  see  that  the  amount  and  kind  of 
evidence  which  (to  myself)  warrants  my  continual  denial,  is 
abundant  and  definite.  And  unless  there  is  virtue  in  saying 
that  you  are  indebted  when  you  are  not  conscious  of  being 
indebted,  I  think  I  am  not  only  warranted  in  making  the  denial 
but  bound  to  make  it. 

In  brief,  then,  my  position  is  this  : — Until  it  is  shown  that  the 
views  of  social  science  I  now  hold,  differ  from  those  contained 
in  Social  Statics,  by  something  more  than  difference  of  develop- 
ment— until  it  is  shown  that  a  Cosmogony  is  not  to  be  rightly 
affiliated  on  preceding  Cosmogonies  but  is  to  be  rightly  affiliated 
on  an  Org^non  of  the  Sciences — untU  it  is  shown  that  the  essay 
on  Progress  does  not  contain  the  rudiments  out  of  which  First 
Principles  has  naturally  developed — until  it  is  shown  that  I  have 
adopted  some  general  view  of  Comte's,  or  been  led  by  his  teaching 
to  abandon  some  view  I  previously  held ;  I  shall  continue  to 
assert  that  I  am  uninfluenced  by  Comte,  save  in  those  minor 
views  of  his  which  I  avowedly  accept,  and  by  the  influence  of 
antagonism.  And  until  some  such  specific  evidence  is  assigned, 
I  shall  continue  to  think  the  opposite  assertion  unwarranted. 

Sincerely  yours, 

HERBERT  SPENCER. 

[•Fortunately  he  had  kept  my  letter.  He  returned  it  to  me  and  I  have 
quoted  it  in  Chapter  XXXIV.] 


APPENDIX  C. 


[Documents  concerning'  the  intended  cessation  of  the  issue  of  the 
Synthetic  Philosophy,  and  concerning  the  measures  taken  to  prevent  it.'] 

Private. 

London,  April  8th,  1866. 
Sir, 

The  subscribers  to  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  System  of 
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tions towards  the  expences  of  publishing  his  great  work,  the 
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and  send  it  to  Messrs.  Williams  &  Norgate. 

Geoege  Busk,  John  Lubbock, 

John  Tyndall,  J.  S.  Mill, 

T.  H.  HUXLET. 


To  Messrs.  Williams  &  Norgate, 

14  Henrietta  Street,  Covent  Garden,  London^  W.O. 

Enter  my  name  as  a  Subscriber  to  the^th  and  following  volumes  of 
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492  APPENDIX  C. 

Messrs.  Williams  &  Norgate  are  ready  to  take  charge  of,  and 
keep  for  the  subscribers  the  copies  they  may  subscribe  for  for 
the  present  purpose,  if  directed  to  do  so. 

The  second  of  the  two  circulars  named  in  Chapter  XL  II 
here  follows : — 

The  Royal  School  of  Mines,  Jermyn  Street, 
May  18th,  1866. 
My  dear  Sir, 

I  think  it  is  desirable  that  a  copy  of  the  accompanying 
letter  addressed  to  me  by  Mr.  Spencer,  should  be  sent  to  all 
those  who  have  expressed  a  wish  to  co-operate  with  Mr.  Busk, 
Sir  John  Lubbock,  Mr.  Mill,  Prof.  Tyndall,  and  myself,  in 
carrying  out  the  plan  suggested  in  our  circular  of  April  8th  last. 
Mr.  Spencer's  letter  appears  to  me  to  preclude  us  from  any 
corporate  action  in  promoting  the  pecuniary  success  of  his 
works ;  but  so  stout  a  champion  of  personal  liberty,  can,  I  am. 
sure,  make  no  objection  to  efforts  on  the  part  of  individuals, 
who  reflect  that  his  time  and  his  labours  are  still  bestowed 
without  remuneration,  to  extend  the  list  of  subscribers. 

I  am,  yours  very  faithfully, 

T.  H.  HUXLEY. 
Sydney  Williams,  Esq. 

17  Wilmot  Street,  Derby, 
13th  May,  1866. 
My  dear  Huxley, 

You  are  aware  of  the  sad  event  which  brought  me  down 
here  some  three  weeks  ago.  This  event  has  consequences 
respecting  which  it  seems  proper  that  I  should  write  to  you 
without  further  delay. 

When,  along  with  the  last  number  of  the  Biology,  I  issued  a 
notice  of  cessation,  to  take  place  on  the  completion  of  the  volume 
now  in  progress,  I  did  so  because  I  felt  that  I  was  not  justified 
in  continuing  to  sink  what  little  property  I  possess,  as  1  have 
been  doing  year  by  year  since  I  began  publishing.  My  position 
is  now  so  far  changed,  that  it  will  be  possible  for  me  to 
persevere,  without  making  any  other  sacrifice  than  that  of  my 
time. 

As  you  know,  I  reluctantly  assented  to  the  measures  that 
had,  unknown  to  me,  been  taken  by  friends  interested  in  the 
continuance  of  my  work,  only  because  otherwise  the  alternatives 
were,  discontinuance  of  it  or  prospective  ruin.  Now  that  these 
are  no  longer  the  alternatives,  my  reason  for  assenting  dis- 
appears. I  shall  feel  much  more  at  my  ease  in  going  on  with 
my  serial  as  heretofore,  than  I  should  feel  with  the  help  of  that 


APPENDIX  C.  493 

additional  circulation  of  it  proposed  to  be  secnred — in  however 
delicate  a  way. 

Will  you,  therefore,  be  kind  enough  to  see  that  the  arrange- 
ments lately  entered  into  are  cancelled — not,  however,  without 
expressing  my  acknowledgments  to  those  who  have  entered  into 
them.  While  I  regret  that  you,  and  others  who  have 
co-operated,  should  have  spent  so  much  time  and  trouble  in 
devising  a  plan  now  to  be  abandoned,  the  conclusive  proofs  of 
Bympathy  with  my  aims  that  have  been  thus  given,  will  ever  be 
a  gratifying  remembrance  to  me. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

HERBERT  SPENCER. 


APPENDIX  D. 


[An  account  of  the  invalid-hed,  as  given  by  the  "British  Medical  Journal** 
/or  July  27,  1867.] 


A  NEW  INVALID-BED. 

There  is  now  on  view  at  the  establishment  of  Mr.  Ward,  the 
invalid  chair-maker,  Leicester  Square,  a  new  invalid-bed, 
admitting  of  a  much  greater  variety  of  movements  than  any  of 
those  at  present  in  use.  The  upper  framework  has  adjustments 
similar  to  those  of  an  ordinary  fracture-bed  ;  permitting  the 
body  to  be  raised  to  various  inclinations,  and  the  knees  to  be 
bent  to  various  angles.  But  the  peculiarity  is,  that  this  frame- 
work is  supported,  under  its  centre,  on  a  large  ball-and-socket 
joint,  which  allows  the  whole  framework,  with  its  variously 
adjustable  parts,  to  be  moved  about  bodily  in  all  directions;  so  as 
to  be  inclined  longitudinally,  laterally,  or  both,  and  to  be  moved 
round  so  as  to  face  all  points  of  the  compass.  By  means  of  a 
simple  locking  apparatus,  the  framework  is  firmly  fixed  in  any 
attitude  that  may  be  desired:  a  few  turns  of  the  handle  sufficing 
again  to  release  it,  and  any  other  attitude  to  be  assumed. 
Among  the  advantages  obtained  are  these  : — 

The  patient  may  be  taken  out  of  bed,  and  put  into  bed  again, 
without  the  efibrt  ordinarily  required.  The  ball  being  unlocked, 
and  the  bed  being  gently  tipped  forwards,  so  that  its  lower  end 
reaches  the  floor,  the  patient  comes  upon  his  feet ;  and  after  the 
sheets  have  been  changed,  or  some  needful  act  performed,  he  is 
placed  with  his  back  against  the  inclined  surface  of  the  bed, 
which,  being  then  made  to  revolve  backwards,  he  lies  as  at  first. 

By  a  lateral,  instead  of  a  longitudinal  inclination  of  the  bed, 
the  patient  may  be  turned  over  from  the  back  on  to  the  side,  or 
contrariwise;  saving  the  labour  and  pain  often  entailed  by 
this  change. 

The  longitudinal  inclination  of  the  bed  being  changeable  at 
pleasure,  the  patient  may  lie,  or  may  sleep,  at  any  angle  that  he 
may  prefer,  or  that  is  prescribed ;  either  with  the  head  higher 


APPENDIX  D.  495 

than  the  feet,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  desirable,  with  the  feet 
somewhat  higher  than  the  head :  the  inclination  being  of  course 
adjustable  to  a  nicety,  and  changeable  at  will. 

The  moveable  framework  which  supports  the  trunk,  being 
raised,  so  that  the  trunk  and  legs  form  an  angle  (which  may  be 
varied  to  any  extent  up  to  a  right  angle)  the  whole  bed  may 
then  be  moved  longitudinally  round  its  centre  of  support,  so 
that  the  body  in  this  bent  position  may  have  the  head  and  feet 
placed  at  all  varieties  of  relative  elevation.  For  example,  while 
the  trunk  is  horizontal  the  legs  may  be  greatly  inclined  upwards, 
an  attitude  that  is  desirable  where  injury  of  the  foot  or  knee 
renders  it  proper  to  diminish  the  pressure  of  blood. 

The  framework  that  bends  the  knees  being  raised,  as  well  as 
that  which  inclines  the  trunk,  the  same  longitudinal  rotation  of 
the  framework  gives  a  great  variety  of  partly-reclining,  partly- 
sitting  postures.  The  patient  may  be  placed,  without  any  effort 
to  him,  in  all  attitudes  between  that  of  lying  horizontally,  and 
that  of  sitting  upright  in  an  easy  chair. 

These  movements  may,  of  course,  be  all  of  them  joined  with 
any  such  degree  of  lateral  inclination  of  the  bed  as  is  desired ; 
so  that,  supposing  the  framework  has  been  adjusted  somewhat 
into  the  form  of  an  easy  chair,  and  tilted  forwards  or  backwards 
so  as  to  bring  a  wounded  arm  or  foot  to  the  right  height,  the 
bed  may  be  at  the  same  time  tilted  sideways,  so  as  to  bring  this 
wounded  arm  or  foot  on  the  uppermost  side,  into  the  most 
convenient  position  for  dressing  the  wound. 

At  the  same  time  the  movement  of  horizontal  rotation  being 
brought  into  play,  the  whole  bed  may  be  moved  round  until  the 
injured  part  is  turned  towards  the  light :  this  same  horizontal 
rotation  being,  at  other  times,  available  for  giving  the  patient 
change  of  view,  enabling  him  to  look  out  of  the  window  when 
raised  in  the  sitting  posture,  or  to  have  his  face  turned  away 
from  the  light  if  it  is  distressing. 

To  the  side  of  the  framework  is  fixed  a  moveable  arm,  carrying 
a  small  table,  to  support  a  plate  or  basin,  and  this  table,  by  a 
slight  change  of  position,  also  becomes  a  reading-easel. 

One  of  the  advantages  of  the  bed  not  originally  foreseen,  but 
which  has  come  out  in  practice,  is  that  of  being  able  to  make 
certain  changes  in  a  patient's  position  quite  suddenly.  When 
the  ball-and-socket  joint  is  but  partially  locked,  so  that  a 
moderate  force  applied  to  the  head  or  foot  of  the  bed  will  change 
its  position,  the  patient,  previously  lying  back,  may  be  instantly 
raised  into  the  sitting  posture  if  a  coughing  fit  come  on. 

One  further  use  that  may  be  named  is,  that  when  the  ball-and- 
socket  joint  is  completely  unlocked,  so  as  to  permit  perfect 
freedom  of  movement,  two  attendants,  seizing  the  handles  on 
the  opposite  sides  of  the  bed,  may  give  the   patient  R  little 


496  APPENDIX  D. 

exercise,  by  rocking  the  bed  from  side  to  side  in  tbe  manner 
of  a  cradle. 

Beyond  tbe  special  advantages  above  described,  there  are 
some  general  advantages.  The  ability  to  change  the  posture  of 
the  patient  in  such  a  variety  of  ways  and  degrees,  vsdthout  any 
effort  to  him,  must  tend  to  diminish  that  pain,  weariness,  and 
irritability,  caused  by  long  continuance  of  the  same  attitude,  or 
by  small  choice  of  attitudes,  and  must  so  conduce  to  con- 
valescence. A  further  result  to  be  anticipated,  is,  that  bed  sores 
may  be  avoided,  the  points  of  chief  pressure  being  changeable  at 
will,  and  as  often  as  is  desired. 

This  bed,  devised  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  the  distinguished 
biologist  and  philosophical  writer,  for  a  member  of  his  own 
family,  has  been  in  use  between  four  and  five  months,  and  has 
so  far  answered  his  expectations  that  he  has  had  a  second  made, 
with  sundry  improvements,  hoping  that  it  may  be  of  service  to 
others.  Mr.  Spencer  has  refrained  from  patenting  it:  not 
wishing  to  place  any  obstacle  in  the  way  of  its  general  use. 


**4 

.      «    ,    J 

f            :.     '    ,/  '     ^ 

\.'          >              T* 

""^^s&^Spm^^SB^^^^ 

^^ijp'l^ 

^^ 

>:*»-- 

APPENDIX   E. 


{_A  letter  concerning  the  feeling  in  England  at  the  time  tohen  there 
began  the  American  War  between  North  and  South — a  letter  written 
for  publication  in  the  "  New  York  Tribune,"  and  which,  though 
withheld  at  the  time,  was  published  in  that  Journal  some  years  later.'} 


Mt  Dear  Toumans  :  When  you  were  here  I  told  you  ttat  the 
Americans  wholly  misconceive  the  feeling  with  which  England 
at  first  regarded  the  quarrel  between  North  and  South.  To 
others  of  your  countrymen  I  have,  from  time  to  time,  made  the 
same  statement ;  and  I  have  urged  more  than  one  of  them  to 
examine  for  himself  the  evidence  furnished  by  our  press,  and  to 
publish  the  results  of  his  examination.  l!^othing  has  come  of 
my  suggestions,  however.  Whether  those  I  spoke  to  thought  it 
impossible  that  the  truth  could  be  so  entirely  at  variance  with 
their  belief  as  I  represented,  or  whether  they  preferred 
cherishing  a  belief  which  seemed  to  justify  their  indignation,  I 
cannot  say :  probably  both  causes  conspired  with  their  dislike  to 
the  required  trouble. 

The  importance  of  disabusing  the  American  mind  on  this 
matter  is  increasingly  manifest.  That  hostile  feeling  toward 
us  which  has  for  years  been  displayed  by  your  journals  and 
your  orators,  has  been  largely  if  not  mainly  caused  by  the 
impression  that  gratuitous  ill-will  was  felt  by  us  from  the 
outset ;  and  I  cannot  but  think  that  were  this  erroneous  impres- 
sion removed,  there  would  be  less  difficulty  in  coming  to  an 
understanding  on  disputed  questions.  Failing  to  find  any  one 
else  to  do  what  it  seems  to  me  should  be  done,  I  have  myself 
had  collected  the  requisite  materials,  with  the  view  of  afibrding 
to  Americans  the  means  of  judging  how  far  they  are  warranted 
in  cherishing  that  animosity  which  has  lately  been  exhibited 
more  violently  than  ever. 

In  the  first  place  let  me  show  you  the  public  opinion  that 
existed  in  England  at  the  time  that  secession  was  impending,  as 
that  opinion  was  expressed  in  the  columns  of  the  press. 

"  In  South  Carolina,  and  Alabama,  and  Georgia,  an  appeal  is  to  be  made 
to  the  last  powers  vested  in  the  State  Constitution,  with  a  view  to  disunion, 
on  no  ground  whatever,  that  can  be  discovered,  except  that  they  do  not  like 

32 


498  APPENDIX  E. 

Mr.  Lincoln.  *  *  *  To  all  oar  political  notions  there  is  no  more  reason  for 
the  violences  reported  from  the  Sonthem  States  than  there  would  be  for  the 
electors  of  Soathwark  refusing  to  pay  assessed  taxes  because  Lord  Palmer- 
Bton  had  declared  against  the  ballot.  *  *  •  The  Southern  States  certainly 
would  not  mend  matters  by  a  separation.  *  *  *  Anything  is  better  than 
dividing  State  against  State,  house  against  house,  and  servant  against 
master  in  the  most  rising  nation  in  the  world."  [Times,  Deo.  5,  1860. 

"  Without  sharing  the  opinions,  much  less  using  the  language,  of  the 
Abolitionists  with  respect  to  Slavery,  which,  bad  though  it  be,  must  remain 
for  many  years  an  institution  of  the  United  States,  we  look  upon  the  conduct 
of  South  Carolina  in  this  matter  as  disgraceful  in  the  last  degree.  To  gratify 
their  pique  against  those  of  opposite  politics,  and  to  advance  their  local 
interests,  the  Slave-owners  would  destroy  a  CJonstitution  under  which  their 
country  has  enjoyed  singular  prosperity."  [Timet,  Dec.  11,  1860. 

"  The  Americans  may  confidently  assure  themselves  that  there  is  no  party 
in  this  kingdom  which  desires  anything  but  the  maintenance  and  prosperity 
of  the  Union.  •  *  *  «  yj^  cannot  disguise  from  ourselves  that,  apart 
from  all  poUtioal  complications,  there  is  a  right  and  a  wrong  in  this  question, 
and  that  the  right  belongs,  with  all  its  advantages,  to  the  States  of  the 
North."  [T^m^a,  Jan.  4, 1861. 

"  The  proposal  of  secession  is  so  wild,  so  absurd,  that  it  could  not  be  put 
forth  by  men  sensible  enough  to  conduct  public  affairs  unless  they  were  so 
dishonest  as  to  be  unworthy  of  the  trust.  The  threat  is  either  an  outbreak 
of  mad  passion,  or  a  device  to  obtain  concessions  from  the  fears  and  affec- 
tions of  the  North."  [Daily  NetBs,  Jan.  2, 1861. 

"Granted  that  the  United  States  of  America  are  beset  with  peculiar 
difficulties  in  treating  this  question  [Slavery] — when  are  these  difficulties  to 
vanish,  when  are  they  to  be  lessened  under  the  domination  of  the  South  ? 
Have  not  the  Southern  states  gone  on  from  iniquity  to  iniquity  i  *  *  *  * 

"  We  must  not  forget  that  slave-owners  are  necessarily  aggressive  in  every 
sense,  and  that  in  the  United  States  they  have  been  as  a  minority  not  only 
dominant  and  aggressive,  but  turbulent,  insolent,  and  overbearing  even 
towards  the  majority  of  their  own  race  and  nation." 

[Morning  Herald,  Dec.  27,  1860. 
"  If  the  Southern  States  were  the  advocates  of  a  cause  less  pernicious  and 
detestable  than  the  extension  of  slavery,  we  should  still  think  their  pro- 
ceedings f oohsh  and  suicidal ;  but,  under  existing  eircumstanoes,  they  can 
have  neither  the  sympathy  nor  good  wishes  of  any  man,  either  in  America  or 
in  England,  who  has  the  slightest  regard  for  the  progress  of  civilization  and 
the  interests  of  humanity."  [Morning  Post,  Dec.  6,  1860. 

"We  must  persist  in  the  opinion  that  this  Southern  agitation  is  false  in 
its  pretences,  and  will  be  proved  a  blunder  by  its  results  ;  but,  if  now,  or  at 
any  future  time,  the  slave  states  should  break  away  from  the  Union,  we 
might  await  with  confidence  the  day  when  the  Northern  confederacy, 
stronger  in  its  liberty,  in  its  moral  power,  and  in  its  physical  manhood, 
would  rise  and  overwhelm  its  sullen  rival,  and  crush  the  system  of  slavery 
for  ever."  [Daily  Tekgraph,  Deo.  3, 1860. 

"  We  see  also  how  intolerant  slavery  makes  its  votaries.  They  have  enjoyed 
a  long  lease  of  power ;  they  have  had  the  advantage  of  a  large  number  of 
pro-slavery  Presidents,  as  well  as  of  supple  majorities  in  Congress;  and 
from  the  admission  of  Texas  into  the  Union,  as  a  Slave  State,  down  to  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise,  their  demands,  monstrous  and  unjust  as 
they  have  been,  met  with  a  too  ready  compliance.  But  now,  because  they 
have  received  a  check,  and  their  opponents,  whose  rights  they  have  so  often 
violated,  have  succeeded  in  climbing  into  power,  they  have  the  effrontery  to 
put  on  an  air  of  injured  innocence,  and  to  pretend  that  the  legitimate 
triumph  of  the  North  is  an  act  of  aggression  against  them." 

[Afomin^  Star,  Nov.  27,  I860. 


APPENDIX  E.  499 

"  They  [Slave  States]  dare  not  go  out  of  the  Union  with  their  slaTeB,  for 
they  have  nowhere  to  go  to.  They  are  a  great  deal  safer  in  the  friendship 
and  alliance  of  the  North."  [Etpresa,  Nov.  20,  1860. 

"  The  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  will  be  hailed  everywhere  as  a  declara- 
tion that  the  great  Republic  is  not  a  slave  Republic.  »  *  *  England  will 
now  approve  of  the  general  course  of  United  States  policy ;  and  with  the 
dominancy  of  the  Slave  power  half  the  causes  of  irritation  between  the  two 
countries  will  cease.  England  must  ever  be  an  anti-slavery  country,  and  its 
Government  of  any  party  an  anti-slavery  Government." 

[Sun,  Nov.  19,  1860. 

"  But  will  the  South  really  carry  out  their  threat,  and  secede  from  the 
Union  ?  We  beUeve  that  all  their  loud  talk  is  but  bluster,  and  that  they  will 
do  nothing  so  utterly  mad  as  this.  •  *  *  We  are  persuaded  that  the  North 
have  little  to  lose  by  the  change,  the  South  everything.  *  •  *  With  the 
feeling  of  the  whole  world  against  them ;  standing  alone  in  their  assertion 
of  a  principle  which  Ohristianity  and  civilization  have  condemned,  the 
Southern  states  of  America — abundant  in  land,  bankrupt  in  everything  else 
— would  sink  rapidly  to  a  lower  and  lower  level,  till  they  had  become  as  de- 
graded as  Mexico."  [Standard,  Nov.  24, 1860. 

"If  we  augur  rightly,  the  Southern  rebellion  will  splutter  a  great  deal 
and  then  subside.  It  rests  upon  grounds  not  tenable  in  an  Anglo-Saxon 
conununity ;  for  it  does  not  rest  upon  any  violation  of  the  Constitution,  the 
common  law  or  the  statute  book.  It  rests  upon  arrogance  and  ill-temper, 
too  weak  a  foundation  for  a  Southern  confederacy." 

[Spectator,  Dec.  1, 1860. 

The  English  "  nation  may  be  trusted  to  consent  to  almost  any  sacrifice 
rather  than  that  the  Slave-trade  should  exceed  its  present  inevitable  limits." 

[Saturday  Review,  Dec.  29,  1860. 

This  universal  condemnation  of  the  South  and  sympathy  with 
the  North,  uttered  through  the  English  journals  before  the  news 
of  Secession  reached  us,  was  uttered  afterwards  in  even  stronger 
language.     Here  are  the  proofs  : 

«•  For  our  own  part,  whatever  opinions  Americans  may  have  of  English 
policy,  we  beg  to  assure  them  that  in  this  country  there  is  only  one  wish, — 
that  the  Union  may  survive  this  terrible  trial.  Should  Providence  decree  it 
otherwise,  we  earnestly  pray  that  the  separation  may  be  an  amicable  one. 
Civil  war  in  a  flourishing  country  and  among  a  kindred  people  can  never  be 
contemplated  without  horror  by  a  nation  like  ours,  and  we  trust  that  neither 
the  violence  of  the  people  nor  the  weakness  of  their  leaders  will  bring  this 
calamity  on  the  American  Union."  [Times,  Jan.  18,  1861. 

"  Without  law,  without  justice,  without  delay,  she  [South  Carolina]  is 
treading  in  the  path  that  leads  to  the  downfall  of  nations  and  the  misery  of 
families.  The  hollowness  of  her  cause  is  seen  beneath  all  the  pomp  of  her 
labored  denunciation,  and  surely  to  her,  if  to  any  community  of  modem 
days,  may  be  applied  the  words  of  the  Hebrew  Prophet — '  A  wonderful  and 
horrible  thing  is  committed  in  the  land.  The  Prophets  prophesy  falsely,  and 
my  people  love  to  have  it  so.'  "  [Timet,  Jan.  19,  1861. 

«'  We  should  be  thankful  to  see  reason  to  hope  that  the  South  could  throw 
oS  her  madness,  and  agree  now  to  terms  which  she  must  accept  at  last." 
"  If  the  seceders  do  not  make  the  most  of  that  time  [i.e.  the  remaining  six 
weeks  of  President  Buchanan's  term  of  office]  to  negotiate  a  return,  there 
seems  to  be  no  other  prospect  than  that  of  coercion — unwilling  as  the  North 
sincerely  is  to  resort  to  it."  [Daily  News,  Jan.  21,  1861. 

If  the  Southern  States  succeed  in  establishing  a  separate  Union,  they  will 
form  a  State  "  insignificantly  small  and  hated  among  mankind,  for  lack  of 

32* 


500  APPENDIX  B. 

those  moral  attribntes  without  which  in  this  age  no  Power  can  claim  or 
receive  the  respect  of  civilized  and  free  communities." 

[^Morning  Post,  Jan.  9,  1861. 

"  No  one  desires  to  witness  the  dismemberment  of  a  great,  friendly,  and 
cognate  nation ;  but  if  this  object  should  be  accomplished  the  blame  will 
rest  with  the  people  of  the  South,  whose  treason  and  rebellion  have  been 
aided  and  abetted  by  the  temporizing  and  cowardly  policy  of  Mr.  President 
Buchanan."  [Morning  Post,  Jan.  12,  1861. 

If  war  should  arise  "we  must  once  more  rely  on  the  natural  laws  of 
justice,  and  predict  that  the  slave  Secessionists  will  be  humbled,  if  not 
trampled  under  foot."  [Daily  Telegraph,  Jan.  19,  1861. 

"Every  man  who  deserves  the  name  throughout  the  civilized  world  gives 
his  hearty  sympathy  to  the  North."  [Daily  Telegraph,  Jan.  15,  1861. 

'•  The  free  States  are  purging  themselves  from  the  contempt  of  the  civilized 
world  for  past  submission  to  the  slave  oligarchs ;  and  whatever  may  be  the 
intentions  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  reference  to  the  issues  agitating  the  thirty-three 
states  of  the  Union,  there  is  ample  evidence  in  the  tone  of  the  Northern 
press  that  the  doom  of  Slavery  is  sealed."  [Morning  Herald,  Jan.  28,  1861. 

"  We  deplore  the  infatuation  which  impels  the  Cotton  States  to  a  course  so 
unjustifiable  and  dangerous.  *  *  *  We  sympathize  with  our  brethren  of 
the  North  in  the  trial  of  principle  and  temper  to  which  they  are  subjected." 

[Morning  Star,  Jan.  15, 1861. 

"  We  may  well  suppose  that  the  Southern  men  make  themselves  believe 
their  cause  a  good  one — but  the  men  of  the  North  know  theirs  to  be  so.  It 
requires  no  tampering  with  conscience  to  enjoy  the  faith  that  extension  of 
slavery  ought  to  be  repressed ;  and  that  is  the  present  creed  of  the  North. 
It  demands  the  subversion  of  all  Christian  instincts  to  believe  in  the  right  of 
property  in  man,  and  to  think  slavery  an  institution  of  Heaven ;  and  that  is 
the  creed  of  the  South.  No  artifice  can  make  this  professed  creed  a  faith. 
Think  of  dying  for  slavery !"  [Sun,  Jan.  19,  1861. 

"  The  spectacle  presented  in  the  United  States  ♦  *  *  of  successful  rebeUion 
in  the  South,  with  timidity  and  almost  daily  change  of  men  and  measures  in 
the  Government  of  Washington,  is  one  which  all  Englishmen  must  regard 
with  pain."  [Globe,  Jan.  14,  1861. 

"  In  our  estimation  the  South  has  all  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain  by  dis- 
union ;  and  unhappily  the  rest  of  the  world  may  lose,  too,  by  conduct  which 
seems  to  spring  from  no  source  but  political  pride  and  passion." 

[Globe,  Jan.  18,  1861. 

'•  There  remains  no  course  open  to  the  friends  of  the  Union  but  an  appeal 
to  the  sword.  *  *  *  We  hold  it  to  be  perfectly  clear  that  the  act  of 
secession  is  rebellion,  and  that  the  Government  which  neglects  by  every 
means  in  its  power  to  prevent  so  dire  a  calamity  is  guilty  of  treason  to  the 
Federal  constitution.  But,  in  the  present  instance  the  enormity  of  the 
crime  of  the  state  of  South  Carolina  is  magnified  by  the  absence  of  any 
reasonable  ground  for  their  withdrawal  from  the  Union." 

[Standard,  Jan.  19,  1861. 

•*  On  the  South  rests  the  whole  guilt  of  this  fratricidal  strife ;  and  on  the 
South  will  fall  the  worst  consequences  of  the  conflict  it  has  provoked. 

[Standard,  May  2,  1861. 

"  We  can  only  say  that  the  South  is  mad — mad  in  the  way  that  is  caused 
by  passion  acting  on  ignorance  and  a  morbid  self-will." 

[Express,  Jan.  24,  1861. 

"  The  Southerns  *  *  ♦  are  fighting,  not  to  be  let  alone,  but  for  the 
preservation  and  maintenance  of  the  Slave  System,  to  which  everything 
must  be  subordinated."  [Spectator,  Jan.  5,  1861. 

"It  is  the  dread  of  being  inclosed  in  a  ring  fence,  a  vital  article  in  the 
Republican  programme,  which  fills  the  Southerns  with  dismay,  and  urges 
them  on  in  their  mad  progress  towards  anarchy."    [Spectator,  Jan.  26,  1861. 


APPENDIX  E.  501 

"  There  is  little  danger  that  Englishmen  will  look  on  the  dissolution  of  the 
United  States  with  languid  curiosity  or  malicious  satisfaction.  We  have 
plenty  of  selfish  reasons,  if  we  had  no  others,  for  regarding  it  with  something 
like  dismay.  In  fact,  the  event  which  South  Carolina  has  recklessly  pre- 
cipitated may  be  said  to  have  involved  this  country  in  the  very  same 
embarrassments  with  which  the  Northern  United  States  have  so  long 
struggled."  [Saturday  Review,  Jan.  12,  1861. 

"  The  Northern  States  are  fully  justified  in  arming  for  the  support  of  the 
Constitution."  [Saturday  Review,  Feb.  2,  1861. 

Such  was  the  display  of  English  feeling  in  the  daily  and 
weekly  papers  of  all  political  parties.  The  journals  of  extreme 
Toryism  joined  those  of  extreme  Liberalism  in  this  unqualified 
reprobation  of  the  South.  Not  a  single  expression  of  sympathy 
with  the  South  has  been  discovered  in  the  course  of  the  examination. 
One  expression  of  the  kind  was,  I  am  told,  published  in  a 
monthly  magazine,  and  protested  against  as  being  in  absolute 
opposition  to  the  current  of  public  opinion.  Just  that  cordial 
approval  which  the  anti-Slavery  party  of  the  North  expected  to 
have  from  England,  and  which  they  afterward  so  loudly  com- 
plained that  they  did  not  get,  was  at  first  shown  to  them  in  the 
clearest  manner,  even  by  those  least  friendly  to  American 
institutions. 

How  came  all  this  to  be  changed  ?  When  once  a  sentiment 
has  been  established  throughout  the  whole  nation,  it  is  a  difficult 
thing  to  alter  it ;  and  the  transformation  of  it  into  an  opposite 
sentiment  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  implies  some  very 
unusual  and  very  strong  influence.  After  the  English  people  had 
unanimously  condemned  the  South  and  wished  success  to  the 
North,  it  is  impossible  that  a  large  part  of  them  should  have 
turned  round  without  a  cause.  What  was  that  cause  ?  I 
know  of  none  but  your  behaviour  to  us.  At  the  very  outset, 
even  before  Secession  had  taken  place,  there  was  a  predisposi- 
tion to  put  an  unfavourable  construction  on  all  we  said  and  did. 
The  loud  utterances  of  a  fellow-feeling  with  you,  of  which  I 
have  given  examples  that  might  be  indefinitely  multiplied,  seem 
either  to  have  passed  unnoticed  by  your  papers,  or  to  have 
produced  no  effect  on  you;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  ready 
credence  seems  to  have  been  given  to  "  stories  of  the  joy 
expressed  by  Englishmen  travelling  in  the  United  States  at  the 
prospect  of  the  Constitution  collapsing,"  which  appeared  in  your 
papers  as  early  as  December,  1860,  and  which  I  find  protested 
against  in  our  papers  as  incredible.  Men  who  are  biassed,  very 
generally  can  see  only  the  facts  which  they  expect  to  see; 
and  I  suppose  that  the  traditional  bitterness  against  England, 
encouraged,  if  I  am  rightly  informed,  even  by  the  lessons  in  your 
school-books,  made  you  ready  to  believe  and  remember  all 
allegations  of  unfriendly  feeling  on  our  part,  while  you  were 
unready  to  believe,  and  very  soon  forgot,  the  clear  proofs  of  our 


502  APPENDIX  EL 

friendly  feeling.  Thus  only  is  it  possible  to  account  for  the  fact 
that,  out  of  the  enormous  mass  of  evidence  to  the  contrary,  you 
extracted  materials  for  the  conviction  that  we  bore  you  ill-will. 
Thus  only  is  it  possible  to  account  for  the  fact  that,  in  response 
to  our  manifestations  of  sympathy,  there  came  insinuations 
respecting  our  intentions  and  our  motives ;  false  statements  of 
what  we  were  doing  or  were  about  to  do;  assertions  that  our 
interests  were  on  the  side  of  the  South,  and  that  therefore  we 
were  sure  to  go  with  the  South;  charges  of  mean  selfishness 
based  on  the  assumed  truth  of  these  assertions ;  ending  in 
invectives  that  became  daily  more  violent.  Friends  who  are 
treated  as  enemies  are  not  likely  to  remain  friends;  and  your 
persistent  misrepresentations,  by  alienating  some  and  producing 
resentment  in  others,  eventually  aroused  among  us  the  hostile 
sentiment  with  which  we  were  wrongly  charged.  I  leave  you  to 
judge  of  the  truth  of  this  inference  after  telling  you  how  I  was 
myself  affected.  It  has  been  said  of  me  by  some  of  your  writers 
that  I  am  in  feeling  more  an  American  than  an  Englishman;  and 
the  statement  is  in  a  considerable  degree  true.  Moreover,  at  the 
time  in  question  (though  in  a  still  greater  degree  afterward),  my 
relations  with  individual  Americans  and  with  the  American 
public  were  such  as  to  heighten  my  preexisting  sympathies. 
Nevertheless,  I  confess  that  your  behaviour  toward  us  wrought 
in  me  a  change  similar  in  kind  to  that  which  I  saw  wrought  in 
those  around  me,  though  not  so  great  in  degree.  Irritated  day 
after  day  by  seeing  ascribed  to  Englishmen  ignoble  motives 
which  certainly  were  not  prevalent,  if  they  existed  at  all,  the 
strength  of  my  fellow-feeling  with  the  North  gradually 
diminished.  Nothing  could  have  made  me  sympathize  with  the 
South ;  but  I  can  well  understand  how  those  whose  detestation 
of  Southern  institutions  and  Southern  conduct  was  less  intense 
than  mine,  were  at  length  so  much  incensed  by  your  undeserved 
reproaches  that  they  changed  sides.  I  do  not  defend  this.  I  do 
not  think  any  were  justified  in  wishing  well  to  your  antagonists 
because  they  felt  themselves  calumniated  by  you ;  and  perhaps  I 
ought  myself  to  have  kept  uncooled  my  originally  warm  interest 
in  your  success.  But  it  is  not  in  ordinary  human  nature  to 
respond  to  hard  words  by  unflagging  good  wishes. 

Was  there  not  a  reason  for  our  hard  words,  you  will  say  ?  Did 
not  the  premature  proclamation  of  neutrality  justify  our  inter- 
pretations ?  I  cannot  enter  at  length  into  this  vexed  question. 
I  will  only  say  that,  had  such  a  proclamation  been  made  by  a 
people  who  were  displaying  unfriendly  sentiments  to  you,  you 
might  have  had  some  reason  to  regard  it  as  an  act  of  hostility; 
but  coming  as  it  did  along  with  the  reprobation — I  might  almost 
say  execration — of  your  antagonists,  it  could  not  reasonably  be 
interpreted  otherwise  than  as  a  step  taken  in  pursuance  of  our 


APPENDIX  E.  603 

established  foreign  policy.  That  the  step  was  taken  sooner  than 
was  necessary  for  the  avoidance  of  entanglements,  may  or  may 
not  be  true ;  bnt  even  if  true,  it  is  surely  strange  that  an  error  of 
judgment  on  the  part  of  a  Minister  should  have  made  you  forget 
the  manifestations  of  good  feeling  from  an  entire  nation. 

No  doubt  there  existed  here  some  who  willingly  found 
provocation  in  your  treatment  of  us.  Their  social  position,  their 
class-interests,  their  traditional  opinions,  have  always  predisposed 
our  "upper  ten  thousand"  to  look  coldly  on  a  society  like  yours. 
And  irritated  as  they  frequently  were  by  having  the  success  of 
American  institutions  held  up  to  them  as  a  reproach,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  they  were  ready  to  say  and  do  unfriendly  things 
whenever  the  opportunity  offered.  Hence  it  became  the  policy 
of  their  journals  to  reproduce  here  everything  you  said  against 
us ;  and  when  the  Trent  affair  and  your  adverse  tariff  gave 
occasion,  the  comments  of  their  journals  were,  of  course,  such  as 
to  increase,  as  much  as  possible,  the  growing  alienation.  Afford- 
ing, as  the  language  of  your  Press  continued  to  do,  abundant 
materials  for  generating  it,  this  hostile  sentiment,  which  was  at 
first  limited  to  a  small  minority,  spread  until  it  became  the 
prevailing  sentiment  among  the  influential  classes,  though  not 
among  the  mass  of  the  people.  And  this  it  was  which  led  to  the 
angry  speeches  made  by  certain  members  of  our  Legislature; 
this  it  was  which  at  length  produced  openly-avowed  partisanship 
with  the  South ;  this  it  was  which  made  possible  the  xmfortunate 
Alabama  business. 

I  have  laid  before  you  little  else  than  indisputable  facts  ;  and 
from  these  facts  such  inferences  as  I  have  drawn  are,  I  think, 
irresistible.  It  is  a  fact  which  any  one  may  verify  by  referring 
to  the  files  of  our  papers  in  New  York,  that  for  months  after  the 
commencement  of  your  troubles,  the  unanimous  sympathies 
of  the  English  with  the  North  were  expressed  in  the  most 
unqualified  manner.  It  is  a  fact  that  my  own  originally  warm 
interest  in  the  success  of  the  North  was  gradually  cooled  by  the 
groundless  suspicions  and  undeserved  reproaches  with  which  you 
responded  to  our  good  wishes ;  and  if  it  be  an  inference  that 
what  changed  me  from  an  ardent  sympathizer  into  a  lukewarm 
sympathizer,  changed  others  from  friends  into  enemies,  the 
inference  is  one  which  scarcely  admits  of  question.  The  con- 
clusion is,  I  think,  inevitable,  that  but  for  the  revolution  of 
feeling  brought  about  by  your  behaviour  to  us,  there  would 
never  have  been  prompted  any  of  those  private  acts  of  aid  to  the 
Confederates  of  which  you  complain,  nor  would  there  have 
happened  that  gross  ofl&cial  negligence  which  allowed  that  aid  to 
be  given.     I  am,  very  sincerely  yours,  Herbert  Spencer. 

No.  37  Queen's  Gardens,  Bayswater,  May  22,  1869. 


APPENDIX    F. 


A  NEW  FISHING   ROD-JOINT. 
[^From  "The  Field"  newspaper  for  January  14,  1871.] 

Sir, — During  the  late  salmou- fishing  season,  I  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  trying  a  rod  with  a  new  kind  o£  joint,  which  I  had 
made  for  me  in  the  spring.  The  results  having  been  satisfactory, 
a  description  of  it  may  be  of  interest  to  fishermen  who  care 
about  improved  appliances. 

This  new  form  of  joint  may  be  generally  described  as  a 
combination  of  the  splice  and  the  socket ;  possessing,  as  I 
think,  the  advantages  of  both  without  their  inconveniences. 

In  the  figure,  A  B  represents  a  splice  made  with  a  shoulder 
at  C — the  effect  of  the  shoulder  being  that,  so  long  as  the 
halves  of  the  splice  are  held  together  laterally,  they  cannot  be 
drawn  apart  longitudinally.  The  halves  of  the  splice  are  held 
together  laterally  by  a  sliding  socket  or  collar,  D  E,  of  such 
length  and  diameter  that  when  it  is  drawn  down  till  the  bottom 
of  it,  E,  comes  to  the  point  B,  or  rather  to  the  dotted  line  just 
below  B,  the  splice  is  tightly  inclosed  by  the  collar  throughout 
its  whole  length  :  the  tightness,  of  course,  resulting  from  the 
slight  taper  of  the  rod  and  the  corresponding  taper  of  the 
collar.     The  advantages  of  this  arrangement  are  these : — 

1.  Decrease  of  weight.  Instead  of  the  usual  metal  socket 
and  the  metal  bracket  fitting  into  it,  which  have  to  bear  all  the 
strain,  and  therefore  must  be  of  considerable  thickness,  there  is 
only  a  single  collar,  which  may  be  made  comparatively  thin ; 
since  the  strain  it  has  to  bear  is  no  greater  than  that  which  is 
borne  by  the  wrapping  of  silk  ordinarily  covering  a  splice. 

2.  Quickness  of  adjustment.  When  the  rod  is  being  put 
together,  no  time  is  required  to  adjust  the  line  of  the  runners. 
The  fixing  of  the  splice  itself  fixes  the  line  of  the  runners, 
which  cannot  afterwards  go  awry.  A  further  and  greater 
economy  of  time  and  trouble,  results  from  dispensing  with 
the  usual  link  of  wire  or  string,  needful  to  prevent  the  loosening 
of  the  joints  by  continual  casting. 

3.  Avoidance  of  entanglements.  The  existing  form  of  socket 
joint,  needing  its  tying  of  wire  or  string  to  prevent  loosening, 
causes  inconvenience  and  irritation  by  often  catching  the  line 
or  the  flies.  This  collar-splice  joint,  as  it  may  fitly  be  called, 
offers  nothing  against  which  the  line  or  the  flies  can  catch. 

4.  It  is  quickly  taken  to  pieces :  requiring  no  untying,  and 
not  being  liable  to  bind. 

This  last  assertion  may  perhaps  be  received  with  scepticism  ; 
since  it  seems  obvious  that  as,  in  rainy  weather,  water  will  get 
into  this  joint  as  into  the  ordinary  one,  the  liability  to  swelling  of 
the  wood  and  consequent  binding  will  be  as  great,  if  not  greater. 
But,  anticipating  this  difficulty,  I  had  especial  care  taken 
that  the  wood  should  be  made  waterproof.     Soaking  it  in  hot 


APPENDIX  F. 


505 


boiled  oil  and  subsequent  vamisliing, 
rendered  it  impermeable ;  so  that  thongh, 
during  my  fishing  of  last  season,  ex- 
posure to  rain  for  many  hours  repeatedly 
occurred,  I  never  had  any  inconvenience 
from  binding.  I  may  add  that,  as  an 
additional  precaution,  I  rubbed  the  sur- 
face of  the  splice,  outer  and  inner,  with  i^inr-  ■vm 
tallow.  [This  was  a  mistake.  I  forgot  HIIIIh  llil 
that  "verdigris"  would  result  from 
contact  of  tallow  with  brass.  I  afterwards 
used  oil.  Perhaps  vaseline  would  answer.] 

It  may  be  well  to  meet  a  further  doubt 
which  some  will  feel — whether  the 
sliding  collar  will  not  be  loosened  by 
continual  casting,  as  the  ordinary  socket 
is.  Recognizing  this  possibility  before 
the  rod  was  made,  I  concluded  that 
there  would  be  little  danger  of  such  an 
evU.  The  common  rod  is  apt  to  get 
loose  at  the  joints,  because  at  each  cast 
the  momentum  given  to  the  upper 
parts  of  the  rod  tends  to  pull  them  out 
of  their  sockets ;  but  in  the  joint  I  have 
described,  the  shoulder  of  the  splice 
effectually  prevents  this  momentum  of 
the  upper  parts  from  producing  any 
effect,  so  long  as  the  collar  keeps  its 
place ;  and  there  is  no  tendency  to 
loosening  of  the  collar,  save  that  result- 
ing from  its  own  momentum,  which  is 
not  sufl&cient  to  overcome  the  friction. 
Experience  verified  this  anticipation : 
when  the  collar  was  thrust  into  its  place 
with  moderate  tightness,  it  never  stirred. 

Being  much  simpler  than  the  ordinary 
joint,  it  ought,  I  should  think,  to  be 
considerably  cheaper;  though  I  cannot 
say  that  the  advantage  of  cheapness  was 
realized  in  my  experience.  But  of 
course  anything  made  for  the  first  time 
is  much  more  costly  than  when  it  is 
habitually  made.  Mr.  Alfred  Carter, 
of  St.  John's  Street  Road,  Islington,  was 
the  maker ;  and,  on  the  whole,  he  carried  out  my  plan  satisfactorily. 


37,  Queen's  Gardens, 
Bayswater, 

Jan.  3. 


HERBERT   SPENCER. 


APPENDIX    G. 


OBITUARY  NOTICE   OF  J.   S.  MILL. 

[^From  the  ^*  Examiner"  newspaper  for  May  17,  1873.] 

To  dilate  npon  Mr.  Mill's  achievements,  and  to  insist  upon  the 
wideness  of  his  influence  over  the  thought  of  his  time,  and 
consequently  over  the  actions  of  his  time,  seems  to  me  scarcely 
needful.  The  facts  are  sufficiently  obvious,  and  are  recognized 
by  all  who  know  anything  about  the  progress  of  opinion  during 
the  last  half-century.  My  own  estimate  of  him,  intellectually 
considered,  has  been  emphatically,  though  briefly,  given  on  an 
occasion  of  controversy  between  us,  by  expressing  my  regret  at 
"  having  to  contend  against  the  doctrine  of  one  whose  agreement 
I  should  value  more  than  that  of  any  other  thinker." 

While,  however,  it  is  almost  superfluous  to  assert  of  him  that 
intellectual  height  so  generally  admitted,  there  is  more  occasion  for 
drawing  attention  to  a  moral  elevation  which  is  less  recognized ; 
partly  because  his  activities  in  many  directions  afibrded  no 
occasion  for  exhibiting  it,  and  partly  because  some  of  its  most 
remarkable  manifestations  in  conduct,  are  known  only  to  those 
whose  personal  relations  with  him  have  called  them  forth.  I 
feel  especially  prompted  to  say  something  on  this  point,  because, 
where  better  things  might  have  been  expected,  there  has  been, 
not  only  a  grudging  recognition  of  intellectual  rank,  but  a 
marked  blindness  to  those  fine  traits  of  character  which,  in  the 
valuation  of  men,  must  go  for  more  than  superiority  of  intelligence. 

It  might,  indeed,  have  been  supposed  that  even  those  who 
never  enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  personal  acquaintance  with  !Mr. 
Mill,  would  have  been  impressed  with  the  nobility  of  his  nature 
as  indicated  in  his  opinions  and  deeds.  How  entirely  his  public 
career  has  been  determined  by  a  pure  and  strong  sympathy  for 
his  fellow-men — how  entirely  this  sympathy  has  subordinated 
all  desires  for  personal  advantage — how  little  even  the  fear  of 
being  injured  in  reputation  or  position  has  deterred  him  from 
taking  the  course  which  he  thought  equitable  or  generous ; 
ought  to  be  manifest  to  every  antagonist,  however  bitter.  A 
generosity  that  might  almost  be  called  romantic  was  obviously 


APPENDIX  G.  507 

the  feeling  prompting  sundry  of  those  courses  of  action  which 
have  been  commented  upon  as  errors.  And  nothing  like  a  true 
conception  of  him  can  be  formed  unless,  along  with  dissent  from 
them,  there  goes  recognition  of  the  fact  that  they  resulted  from 
the  eagerness  of  a  noble  nature,  impatient  to  rectify  injustice 
and  to  further  human  welfare. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  that  my  own  perception  of  this  pervading 
warmth  of  feeling  has  been  sharpened  by  seeing  it  exemplified, 
not  in  the  form  of  expressed  opinions  only,  but  in  the  form 
of  private  actions.  For  Mr.  Mill  was  not  one  of  those  who,  to 
sympathy  with  their  fellow-men  in  the  abstract,  join  indifference 
to  them  in  the  concrete.  There  came  from  him  generous  acts 
that  corresponded  with  his  generous  sentiments.  I  say  this  not 
from  second-hand  knowledge,  but  having  in  mind  a  remarkable 
example  known  only  to  myself  and  a  few  friends.  I  have 
hesitated  whether  to  give  this  example ;  seeing  that  it  has 
personal  implications.  But  it  affords  so  clear  an  insight  into 
Mr.  Mill's  character,  and  shows  so  much  more  vividly  than  any 
description  could  do  how  fine  were  the  motives  swaying  his 
conduct,  that  I  think  the  occasion  justifies  disclosure  of  it. 

Some  seven  years  ago,  after  bearing  as  long  as  was  possible 
the  continued  losses  entailed  on  me  by  the  publication  of  the 
System  of  Philosophy,  I  notified  to  the  subscribers  that  I  should 
be  obliged  to  cease  at  the  close  of  the  volume  then  in  progress. 
Shortly  after  the  issue  of  this  announcement  I  received  from 
Mr.  Mill  a  letter,  in  which,  after  expressions  of  regret,  and  after 
naming  a  plan  which  he  wisbed  to  prosecute  for  reimbursing 
me,  he  went  on  to  say : — "  In  the  next  place  .  .  .  what  I 
propose  is,  that  you  should  write  the  next  of  your  treatises,  and 
that  I  should  guarantee  the  publisher  against  loss,  i.e.  should 
engage,  after  such  length  of  time  as  may  be  agreed  on,  to  make 
good  any  deficiency  that  may  occur,  not  exceeding  a  given  sum, 
that  sum  being  such  as  the  publisher  may  think  sufficient  to 
secure  him."  Now  though  these  arrangements  were  of  kinds 
that  I  could  not  bring  myself  to  yield  to,  they  none  the  less 
profoundly  impressed  me  with  Mr.  Mill's  nobility  of  feeling,  and 
his  anxiety  to  further  what  he  regarded  as  a  beneficial  end. 
Such  proposals  would  have  been  remarkable  even  had  there 
been  entire  agreement  of  opinion.  But  they  were  the  more 
remarkable  as  being  made  by  him  under  the  consciousness  that 
there  existed  between  us  certain  fundamental  differences,  openly 
avowed.  I  had,  both  directly  and  by  implication,  combated  that 
form  of  the  experiential  theory  of  human  knowledge  which 
characterizes  Mr.  Mill's  philosophy ;  in  upholding  Realism,  I  had 
opposed  in  decided  ways,  those  metaphysical  systems  to  which 
his  own  Idealism  was  closely  allied ;  and  we  had  long  carried  on 
a  controversy  respecting   the   test  of  truth,  in  which  I   had 


508  APPENDIX  G. 

similarly  attacked  Mr.  Mill's  positions  in  an  outspoken  manner. 
That  under  such  circumstances  he  should  have  volunteered  his 
aid,  and  urged  it  upon  me,  as  he  did,  on  the  ground  that  it 
would  not  imply  any  personal  obligation,  proved  in  him  a  very 
exceptional  generosity. 

Quite  recently  I  have  seen  afresh,  illustrated  this  fine  trait — 
this  ability  to  bear  with  unruffled  temper,  and  without  any 
diminution  of  kindly  feeling,  the  publicly-expressed  antagonism 
of  a  friend.  The  last  evening  I  spent  at  his  house  was  in  the 
company  of  another  invited  guest,  who,  originally  agreeing  with 
him  entirely  on  certain  disputed  questions,  had  some  fortnight 
previously  displayed  his  change  of  view — nay,  had  publicly 
criticized  some  of  Mr.  Mill's  positions  in  a  very  undisguised 
manner.  Evidently,  along  with  his  own  unswerving  allegiance 
to  truth,  there  was  in  Mr.  Mill  an  unusual  power  of  appreciating 
in  others  a  like  conscientiousness ;  and  so  of  suppressing  any 
feeling  of  irritation  produced  by  difference — suppressing  it  not 
in  appearance  only,  but  in  reality ;  and  that,  too,  under  the  most 
trying  circumstances. 

I  should  say,  indeed,  that  Mr.  Mill's  general  characteristic, 
emotionally  considered,  was  an  unusual  predominance  of  the 
higher  sentiments — a  predominance  which  tended,  perhaps,  both 
in  theory  and  practice,  to  subordinate  the  lower  nature  unduly. 
That  rapid  advance  of  age  which  has  been  conspicuous  for  some 
years  past,  and  which  doubtless  prepared  the  way  for  his 
somewhat  premature  death,  may,  I  think,  be  regarded  as  the 
outcome  of  a  theory  of  life  which  made  learning  and  working 
the  occupations  too  exclusively  considered.  But  when  we  ask 
to  what  ends  he  acted  out  this  theory,  and  in  so  doing  too  little 
regarded  his  bodily  welfare,  we  see  that  even  here  the  excess,  if 
Buch  we  call  it,  was  a  noble  one.  Extreme  desire  to  further 
human  welfare  was  that  to  which  he  sacrificed  himself. 

Hebbeet  Spenceb. 


APPENDIX    H. 


HERBERT  SPENCER  AND  HIS  AMERICAN  FRIENDS. 

\_Letter  published  by  Prof.  Youvians  to  correct  erroneous  impressions 
current  in  Arnerica.'} 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Trihune. 

Sir  :  I  ask  a  portion  of  your  space  to  correct  certain  misstate- 
ments which  have  appeared  in  the  newspapers  in  reference  to 
the  assistance  given  to  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  from  this  country 
in  publishing  his  works.  Repeated  contradictions  of  these 
erroneous  statements  have  already  appeared  in  your  columns, 
but  they  seem  to  have  failed  of  their  purpose,  as  the  following 
extract  from  a  recent  evening  paper  will  show.  The  writer 
said  :  "  The  considerable  sums  that  have  been  transmitted  to  Mr. 
Spencer  from  his  American  publishers  have  been  the  means,  as 
he  himself  has  borne  witness,  of  enabling  him  to  apply  himself 
in  singleness  of  purpose  to  the  one  great  life-work.  If  Mr. 
Spencer  should  be  spared  to  us  only  long  enough  to  complete 
this  work  (the  philosophical  system)  it  is  significant  to  consider 
it  will  be  to  his  American  revenue  that  the  saving  from  frittering 
bread-and-butter  work,  which  would  otherwise  have  been  a 
necessity,  of  fruitful  years  sufficient  to  its  completion,  will 
be  due." 

It  is  no  doubt  a  creditable  thing  that  a  few  persons  in  this 
country,  seeing  the  great  public  importance  of  Mr.  Spencer's 
labors,  and  learning  that  they  were  in  peril  of  interruption  for 
lack  of  support,  contributed  liberally  to  prevent  a  result  which 
they  believed  would  be  a  public  calamity ;  but  if  the  matter  is  to 
be  talked  about  and  boasted  of  as  a  national  honor,  it  becomes 
important  to  know  exactly  how  the  case  stands.  A  glance  at  the 
facts  will  show  that  the  writer  above  quoted  claims  altogether 
too  much.     The  circumstances  were  these. 

During  the  early  part  of  his  career  as  a  philosophical  writer, 
Mr.  Spencer  was  habitually  a  loser  by  his  labors  ;  not  simply  in 
devoting  time  without  return,  but  in  having  to  spend  in  publica- 
tion sums  which  were  only  in  part  repaid  by  sales,  and  he  was 


610  APPENDIX  HL, 

consequently  forced  to  make  repeated  inroads  npon  his  property. 
His  projected  philosophical  system  was  a  formidable  under- 
taking which  h©  expected  to  occupy  twenty  years  of  time,  and 
which  would  involve  heavy  expenditure,  which  no  publisher 
would  undertake.  To  meet  this  he  chose  the  form  of  subscription 
as  the  only  plan  holding  out  any  inducement  of  enabling  him  to 
prosecute  the  work.  Accepting  the  assurances  he  received  that 
it  would  be  sustained,  he  commenced  publication  in  1860,  with 
about  450  English  subscribers  and  about  250  from  this  country. 
But  owing  to  causes  which  need  not  be  named  the  enterprise  was 
not  sustained.  In  two  or  three  years  the  English  subscription  fell 
off  to  about  300  and  the  American  ceased  entirely.  His  American 
publishers  paid  him  a  copyright  on  his  books,  but  that,  with  the 
proceeds  from  the  English  subscriptions,  was  insujficient  to 
protect  him  from  loss.  Early  in  1866  he  found,  upon  examining 
into  his  affairs,  that  spite  of  every  effort  to  economize  he  had,  in 
the  course  of  his  literary  career,  frittered  away  nearly  $6,000,  and 
that  if  he  went  on  much  longer  in  the  same  way  nothing  would 
be  left ;  and  so,  with  much  reluctance,  he  announced  the  discon- 
tinuance of  the  serial. 

But  English  thinkers  were  by  no  means  indifferent  to  the  fate 
of  the  undertaking.  Mr.  Mill  made  a  noble  proposal,  offering  to 
assume  the  entire  pecuniary  responsibility  of  going  on  with  the 
work,  but  Mr.  Spencer  declined  it.  A  movement  was  afterward 
made  by  certain  leading  scientific  men  to  secure  an  artificial 
increase  in  the  circulation  of  his  serial.  This  Mr.  Spencer  at 
first  resisted,  but  was  afterwards  induced  to  consent  to  the 
arrangement  in  a  qualified  form.  While  the  matter  was  pending, 
however,  the  sudden  death  of  Mr.  Spencer's  father  occurred,  and 
altered  the  aspect  of  the  case  ;  so  that  he  at  once  canceled  the 
arrangement,  and  resolved  to  continue  the  work  at  his  own  expense. 

Meantime,  moved  by  the  announcement  that  Mr.  Spencer's 
series  was  to  stop  for  lack  of  support,  and  knowing  that  he  had 
been  a  heavy  loser  by  the  publication  of  works  of  great  value  to 
the  public,  some  of  his  American  friends  contributed  a  sum  to 
repay  his  losses,  and  help  the  project  on;  and  in  July,  1866, 
when  going  to  England,  I  was  commissioned  to  hand  over  to  Mr. 
Spencer  the  documents  showing  that  $7,000  had  been  invested  in 
his  name  in  American  securities.  The  funds  were  not  sent  to 
him  as  a  largess,  or  because  he  was  personally  in  want  of  them, 
but  they  were  sent  to  aid  in  carrying  on  an  extensive  and  very 
important  work  which  was  threatened  with  arrest  because  of  non- 
support.  Mr.  Spencer  was  not  consulted,  and  the  thing  was  so 
done  that  he  had  no  choice  but  to  acquiesce  in  the  arrangement. 
The  spirit  in  which  he  did  it  is  shown  in  the  following  letter : 

My  Deae  Sib  :  Though  my  friend  Dr.  Yoamans,  by  expressions  in  hia 
letters,  had  led  me  to  supposa  that  somethin?  was  likely  to  be  done  in  the 


APPENDIX  Ri  611 

United  States  with  the  view  of  preventing  the  suspension  of  my  work,  yet  I 
was  wholly  unprepared  for  anything  so  generous  as  that  which  I  learned 
from  your  letter  of  June  25.  In  ignorance  of  the  steps  that  were  being  taken, 
I  had  thought  that  possibly  a  revival  and  extension  of  the  American  list  of 
subscribers  would  be  attempted ;  and  my  thought  having  taken  this  direction, 
the  unexpected  munificence  of  my  American  friends  quite  astonished  me,  as 
it  has  astonished  all  to  whom  I  have  named  it.  Not  simply  the  act  itself,  but 
also  the  manner  in  which  the  act  has  been  done,  is  extremely  gratifying  to 
me.  Possibly  you  are  aware  that  while  on  the  one  hand  I  had  decided  that 
I  ought  not  to  continue  sacrificing  what  little  property  I  possess,  I  had,  on 
the  other  hand,  resolved  not  to  place  myself  in  any  questionable  position ; 
and,  in  pursuance  of  this  resolve,  I  had  negatived  sundry  proposals  made 
here  in  furtherance  of  my  undertaking.  But  the  course  adopted  by  my 
American  friends  is  one  wluoh  appears  to  give  me  no  alternative  save  that  of 
yielding.  Already  in  the  case  of  the  profits  accruing  from  republished  works, 
which  I  declined  to  receive  unless  the  cost  of  the  stereotype  plates  had  been 
repaid  to  those  who  furnished  the  funds,  they  defeated  me  by  saying  that  if 
I  did  not  draw  the  proceeds  they  would  remain  in  Messrs.  Appleton's  hands ; 
and  I  foresee  that  were  I  now  to  be  restive  under  their  kindness,  they  would 
probably  take  an  analogous  step.  I  therefore  submit,  and  I  feel  lese  hesita- 
tion in  doing  this  because  the  strong  sympathy  with  my  aims  which  has  from 
the  beginning  been  manifested  in  the  United  States,  makes  me  feel  that 
impersonal  rather  than  personal  considerations  move  those  who  have  acted 
in  the  matter,  and  should  also  guide  me.  Will  you,  therefore,  be  so  good  as 
to  say  to  all  who  have  joined  in  raising  this  magnificent  gift,  which  more 
than  replaces  what  I  have  lost  during  the  last  16  years,  that  I  accept  it  as  a 
trust  to  be  used  to  public  ends,  and  that,  at  the  same  time,  feelings  of 
another  kind  compel  me  to  express  my  gratitude  as  well  as  my  admiration. 
Let  me  add  that  while  the  material  result  of  their  act  will  be  that  of  greatly 
facilitating  my  labors,  the  approval  conveyed  by  it  in  so  unparalleled  a  way 
from  readers  of  another  nation,  cannot  fail  to  be  a  moral  stimulus  and 
support  of  great  value  to  me.  Believe  me,  my  dear  Sir,  very  sincerely  yours, 
£oB£Bi  B.  MmiUBN,  Esq.,  New-York.  Eebbebt  Spekcsb. 

Mr.  Spencer's  statement  that  the  action  of  his  American 
friends  vrould  have  the  effect  of  greatly  facilitating  his  labors, 
soon  proved  true,  and  in  a  v?ay  that  he  himself  hardly  anticipated. 
Instead  of  continuing  to  employ  a  youth  as  an  amanuensis,  he 
was  able  to  engage  a  gentleman  of  university  education  to  give 
him  assistance  of  a  higher  kind.  Not,  indeed,  that  he  wanted 
this  assistance  to  carry  on  his  regular  philosophical  series ;  but 
he  foresaw  that  in  dealing  with  the  **  Principles  of  Sociology  " 
(the  great  work  of  his  system  in  three  volumes),  he  would 
require  the  collection  and  classification  of  a  very  large  amount 
of  materials.  This  was  begun  in  1867,  simply  with  a  view  of 
facilitating  his  own  work,  but  it  quickly  proved  to  be  so 
important  that  Mr.  Spencer  decided  to  have  it  carried  out  for 
general  use.  Though  subsidiary  to  his  main  enterprise  this  was 
an  immense  undertaking,  and  one  which  is  destined  to  prove  of 
g^at  public  moment.  Mr.  Spencer  wanted  the  most  compre- 
hensive and  accurate  knowledge  concerning  all  the  diversified 
phases  of  human  society,  as  a  basis  of  inquiry  into  the  laws  of  its 
development.     Devising  a  method  by  which  the  different  orders 


612  APPENDIX  H. 

of  sociological  facts  conld  be  tabulated,  and  readily  compared,  lie 
divided  the  races  of  mankind  into  three  great  groups — the 
existing  savage  races,  the  existing  civilized  races,  and  the  extinct 
civilized  races — with  the  view  of  working  out  the  whole  subject 
in  the  most  exhaustive  manner.  He  has  engaged  three  gentle- 
men of  the  requisite  qualifications  to  take  each  a  division  of  the 
work  and  devote  to  it  five  years  of  research.  The  work  is 
already  considerably  advanced,  and  portions  of  the  "  Descriptive 
Sociology,"  as  it  will  be  called,  have  been  slowly  passing  through 
the  press  for  the  last  two  years,  and  Mr.  Spencer  hopes  to  be 
able  to  issue  the  first  numbers  in  the  course  of  the  Autumn. 

These  statements  will  make  manifest  the  nature  of  the  mis- 
apprehension that  has  arisen.  When,  a  few  months  ago,  in  a 
lett-er  to  Mr.  Appleton,  part  of  which  appeared  in  The  Evening 
Post,  Mr.  Spencer  said  that  his  chief  reason  for  gratification  at 
the  increase  of  returns  from  this  country,  was  that  he  would  be 
able  to  push  forward  more  rapidly  the  sociological  tables,  the 
allusion  was  to  this  supplementary  undertaking.  Of  course  the 
outlay  implied  by  it,  including  the  cost  of  printing  only,  to  be 
returned  after  a  considerable  time,  is  great;  and  the  rate  of 
progress  is  determined  by  his  ability  to  meet  this  cost.  The 
reference  of  the  above-quoted  writer  to  Mr.  Spencer,  as  having 
himself  borne  witness  to  the  importance  of  his  American  receipts, 
must  therefore  be  interpreted  by  these  facts.  Although  he  has 
received  probably  more  sympathetic  encouragement  from  this 
country  than  from  his  own,  and  although  more  of  his  books  have 
been  sold  here  than  there,  yet  it  is  neither  true  that  he  has 
received  more  money  from  his  American  than  from  his  English 
sales,  nor  that  his  American  income  could  have  alone  sustained 
him,  nor  that  the  continuance  of  his  "  System  of  Philosophy  "  was 
dependent  upon  assistance  from  the  United  States.  Mr.  Spencer 
is  very  far  from  underrating  the  great  benefits  he  has  derived 
from  American  appreciation  and  American  generosity ;  but  if 
claims  are  to  be  made  as  to  who  shall  have  credit  in  the  matter, 
he  has  a  right  to  ask  that  no  injustice  be  done  to  his  English 
friends,  who  were  equally  appreciative  of  his  work,  and  equally 
generous  in  their  proposals  to  sustain  it.  E.  L.  Youmans. 

New  York,  June  5,  1872. 


INDEX. 


Aberdakb,  Lord,  meeting  with,  ii.  279. 

Accident,  faculties  often  developed  by, 
ii.  446  sq. 

Achranich,  Argyll.,  ii.  45,  62,  68. 

Adaptation,  human :  recognized  in 
S.'s  early  writings,  i.  210,  sq.,  360  sq., 
364,  552,  ii.  7,  11. 

Aerial  locomotion  :  S.'s  scheme  for, 
i.  301  sqq.,  306. 

After-glow,  nature  of,  ii.  337. 

Agnosticism,  S.'s  view  at  28,  i.  346. 

Airy,  Sir  G.  B.,  endorsement  of  "Nebu- 
\a.v  Hypothesis,"  ii.  22. 

Alcohol,  effect  after  exercise,  i.  318. 

Aldermaston  Ck)urt,  Berks.,  ii.  279. 

Allen,  Grant,  visit  to,  ii.  412. 

Allman,  G.  J. :  meetings  with,  ii.  235, 
355 ;  Evans's  pun  on  B.  Assoc, 
address,  ii.  329. 

Allotments,  experiment  at  Hinton 
Charterhouse,  i.  28. 

Amativeness,  essay  on  organ  of,  i.  246. 

Amberley,  Lord  and  Laidy,  meetings 
with,  ii.  121. 

Ambition,  how  far  a  factor  in  S.'s 
career,  ii.  449. 

America  :  S.'s  relations  who  emigrated 
to,  i,  25  ;  trials  of  locomotives  im- 
ported from,  i.  165,  179;  Rev.  T. 
Spencer's  tour  in,  i.  294  ;  admira- 
tion for  the  antique,  ii.  84  ;  English 
feeling  on  civil  war,  ii.  210  sqq., 
497  sqq.  ;  political  theory,  ii.  270  ; 
wrong  impressions  about  George 
Eliot,  ii.  364. 

America,  S.'s  relations  with  :  publica- 
tion of  works,  ii.  53,  97,  155,  207,  227, 
509  sq.  ;  pecimiary  testimonial,  ii. 
141  sq.,  266  sq.,  456  (c/.  509  sqq.). 

America,  S.'s  visit  to  :  (c/.  i.  366,  ii. 
198),  ii.  383  sqq. ;  New  York,  li.  388, 
ii.  402  sqq.  ;  musings  on  the  Cat- 
skills,  ii.  389 ;  Saratoga,  ii.  391  ; 
Montreal,  ii.   392 ;    the   "  Thousand 


Islands,"  ii.  393  ;  Kingston,  ii.  394  ; 
Niagara,  ib.  sqq.  ;  Pittsburg,  ii.  396 
sq.  ;  Washington,  ii.  397  ;  use  of  iced 
water,  ii.  398  ;  Baltimore,  ii.  399 
Philadelphia,  ii.  401  ;  progress  of  the 
States,  ii.  402 ;  fictitious  press  re 
ports,  ii.  403  ;  Yale,  iu  404  ;  Boston 
ih.  sq.  public  dinner,  ii.  406  sq.  {cf. 
ii.  385) ;  interviewer's  successful  ruse 
ii.  407  ;  kindness  on  departure,  ii 
408. 

Analysis,  the  method  exhibited  in  S.'s 
writings,  i.  305,  416,  ii.  223  sq.,  432, 
436. 

Ancestry,  the  study  of,  i.  3,  11,  21. 

Anti-Aggression  League,  formation, 
ii.  375  sqq.,  384  (cf.  329). 

Anti-Corn  Law  movement.  Rev.  T. 
Spencer's  connexion  with,  i.  30,  33, 
36. 

Anti-Slavery  movement,  i.  57. 

Anti-State-Church  Association,  i.  237. 

Appleton,  C.  E.  (editor  of  the  Academy) : 
proposed  collaboration  with  S.,  ii. 
243. 

Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  publishers: 
i.  vi,  ii.  97  sq.,  258,  278  ;  equitable 
treatment  of  English  authors,  ii.  227 ; 
S.'s  portrait  painted  for,  ii.  235. 

Approbation,  love  of,  displayed  by 
pubUc  men,  i.  35. 

"  Architectural  Precedent,"  letter  on, 
i.  200. 

Ardtornish,  Argyll.,  i.  489,  ii.  67,  68  sq., 
95,  102,  125,  159,  371. 

Argoed,  The,  Monmouth,  ii.  217. 

Argyll,  Duke  of,  meeting  with,  ii.  297. 

Anneniayi  Magazine,  accounts  of 
Brettells  i.  8. 

Arnott,  Dr.  :  views  on  inertia  criticized, 
i.  103,  ii.  6,  431,  438  ;  meeting  with, 
ii.  41.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

Art:    faculty  innate,  i.   198;  import- 
ance  in  education,  i.  204  ;   ancient 
33 


514 


INDEX. 


sculpture  criticized,  i.  206  sq. ;  prin- 
ciples ignored  by  Turner,  i.  233  aqq.  ; 
methodic  production  of  designs,  i. 
309 ;  Ruskin's  views,  i.  351  sq.  ; 
old  masters  criticized,  ii.  84  sq., 
188  sqq.,  228,  235,  443  ;  experts' 
views,  ii.  195  n.  ;  excessive  decora- 
tion, ii.  189  ;  a  new  term  proposed, 
ii.  193 ;  Burgess's  work,  ii.  235 ; 
Venetian  architecture,  ii.  343  sqq.  ; 
traits  of  barbaric  art,  ii.  345  sq.  ; 
Van  der  Heist  and  Rembrandt, 
ii.  379  ;  pleasiu-e  of  pursuit,  ii.  461. 

"  Art  of  Education,"  i.  438,  500,  501, 
ii.  10. 

Asceticism :  afifiUated  to  devil-worship, 
ii.  226  ;   produces  austerity,  ii.  429. 

Astronomy :  ancient  and  modern, 
ii.  88  ;  a  natural  history,  ii.  107. 

Athenceum,  The, :  notice  of  Pr.  of 
Biology,  ii.  105 ;  a  denial,  ii.  384 ; 
letter  of  L.  Huxley  quoted,  ii.  477. 

Athena;um  Club  :  S.'s  election  into, 
ii.  177  ;  mathematician's  bad  reckon- 
ing, ii.  218  ;  S.'s  occupations,  ii. 
224  sqq.  (cf.  i.  366) ;  membership  of 
Committee,  ii.  280  sq.  ;  Rule  II 
elections,  ii.  297,  cf.  355. 

Atkinson,  H.  G.,  ii.  484. 

Aucott,  pin-maker  of  Derby,  i.  14. 

Austen,  Charles,  meeting  with,  ii.  40. 

Authority :  aim  of  Oxford  movement 
to  re-establish,  i.  49  ;  disregard  for, 
an  inherited  trait  of  S.,  i.  6,  8,  11  sq., 
39,  46,  79,  103,  144,  199,  279,  379, 
ii.  198,  438,  441,  470  ;  influence  on 
S.'s  career,  ii.  441. 

Authors  :  not  to  be  judged  by  their 
books,  i.  365  sq.  ;  dispute  with  book- 
sellers, i.  392  sqq.  ;  public  recog- 
nition the  best  reward,  ii.  234 ; 
miscalculations,  ii.  351  ;  new  books 
hostages  to  fortune,  ii.  357. 

Autobiography :  S.'s  motives  for  writing, 
i.  vii-viii,  ii.  284  sq.  ;  privately 
printed,  ii.  v-vi ;  method  pursued, 
ii.  285  (cf.  355,  413)  ;  proofs  read 
by  friends,  ii.  vi.  ii.  476. 

Avebury,  Lord,  see  Lubbock. 

B ,  E.  A. :  early  friend  of  S.,  i.  177, 

231  ;  expostulation  on  S.'s  demo- 
cratic leanings,  i.  221.  Letters  from 
— calumniation  of  Rev.  T.  Spencer, 
i.  30  sq.,  cf.  ii.  458  ;    S.'s  political 


views,  i.  197  ;  phrenological  charac- 
terization, i.  202  ;  breaks  off  friend- 
ship, i.  275  sq.  Letters  to — burnt,  i. 
198. 

Babbage,  Charles,  ii.  484. 

Bacon,  Francis,  idea  of  scientific  phi- 
losophy, ii.  486. 

Baer,  K.  E.  von :  law  of  development, 
i.  384,  406,  551,  553,  ii.  8  sq.,  12,  166  ; 
influence  on  S.'s  thought,  ii.  486, 
488  sq. 

Bain,  Alexander  :  Emotions  and  the 
Will  reviewed,  ii.  46  ;  devotion  to 
truth,  ib.,  cf.  98  sq.  ;  S.'s  letter  to 
Mill  in  Mental  and  Moral  Science, 
ii.  88  sq.  {cf.  317)  ;  meetings  with, 
ii.  121  ;  gains  false  impression  of 
Psychology  from  reviews,  ii.  131. 
Cf.  ii.  484. 

Baker,  Sir  Benjamin,  C.E.,  training, 
i.  338. 

Baltimore,  U.S.A.,  visit  to,  ii.  399  sq. 

Banking,  State  interference  condemned, 
ii.  4. 

Baptism,  views  of  S.'s  father  on, 
i.  63  sq. 

Bastian,  Dr.  H.  Charlton,  ii.  148,  208  ; 
note  to  Autobiography,  i.  v-vi. 

Bath  Magazine,  contribution  to,  i. 
Ill  sq. 

Bath  Union :  T.  Spencer's  chairman- 
ship, i.  29,  104,  113. 

BajTiee,  T.  Spencer,  ii.  101,  484. 

Beauty :  appreciation  of  scenery  by 
moimtain  dwellers,  i.  509 ;  influence 
on  character  in  women,  ii.  419. 
Cf.  ii.  445. 

Beauvoir,  Sir  John  de,  railway  pro- 
moter, i.  285,  291. 

Beethoven,  L.  von,  music  makes 
lasting  impression,  ii.  68. 

Behef,  type  of  mind  a  factor,  i.  177. 

Belloc,  Mme.,  see  Parkes. 

Ben  Nevis,  ascent  of,  in  1847,  i.  317  sq. 

Benevolence,  essay  on  function  of, 
i.  225,  227,  379. 

Bennett,  Mr.,  engineering  colleague, 
i.  169. 

Bentham,  Jeremy:  S.'s  projected  at- 
tack, i.  226  ;  anti-scientific  bias,  ii. 
89. 

Berhoz,  Hector,  appreciation  of  his 
music,  ii.  370. 

Bernard,  C.  E.,  engineering  colleague, 
i.  141. 


INDEX. 


515 


Billiards,  no  excuses  needed  for  play- 
ing, ii.  225  sq.,  cf.  i.  366. 

"  Binding-pin,"  appliance  devised  by 
S.,  i.  306  sqq.,  320,  321,  544  sq., 
ii.  436. 

Biography :  value  of  genealogies, 
i.  3, 11, 21  ;  S.'s  conception  of,  i.  32, 
37,  435  (cf.  ii.  327) ;  reasons  for 
writing,  ii.  284  sq. 

Biology:  essay  on  reciprocal  depen- 
dence of  animals  and  plants,  i.  246, 
533  sqq.  ;  individuation,  i.  351  ; 
S.'s  views  on  species  in  '52,  i.  387  sqq., 
501  ;  earlier  writings  mainly  anthro- 
pocentric,  i.  500 ;  bearing  on  socio- 
logy, i.  511  ;  survival  of  the  fittest, 
ii.  5 ;  natural  selection,  ii.  100 ; 
position  among  sciences,  ii.  107. 

Birkbeck,  Robert,  visit  to,  ii.  360. 

Birks,  Rev.  Prof.,  attack  on  S.'s  phi- 
losophy, ii.  358. 

Birmingham :  early  impression  of, 
i.  91  ;  conference  between  Chartists 
and  Suffragists,  i.  219  sq.  ;  Pilot 
newspaper,  i.  248,  251  sqq. 

Birmingham  and  Derby  Railway, 
i.  141. 

Birmingham  and  Gloucester  Railway, 
i.  138,  140  sqq. 

Bishopp,  G.  D.,  engineering  colleague, 
i.  141,  154,  165,  179,  183,  258,  264. 

Black,  William,  odd  coincidences  when 
reading  his  books,  ii.  360  sq. 

Blackwood's  Magazine,  on  the  Great 
Exhibition,  i.  373. 

Blanc,  Louis,  meetings  with,  i.  407, 
459  sq. 

Blastodermic  Club,  suggested  name 
for  X  Club  (g.v.),  ii.  lU  sq. 

Blood  supply,  a  factor  in  mind  and 
conduct,  ii.  422  sqq. 

Bodichon,  Madame  [nee  Leigh  Smith), 
meeting  with,  i.  347,  375. 

Booksellers,  dispute  with  authors  in 
'52,  i.  392  sqq. 

Botany  :  circulating  system,  ii.  126  sqq. ; 
flowering  of  aloes,  ii.  321. 

BradsJuiw's  Guide,  i.  130. 

Brain  :  independence  of  hemispheres, 
i.  396  n.,  ii.  175  ;  warning  against 
overtax,  i.  487. 

Braxton,  Carter,  of  Richmond,  Va., 
i.  16. 

Bray,  Charles  and  Anna,  meetings  and 
visits,  i.  407,  434,  484,  ii.  84,  411. 


Brettell:  account  of  S.'s  ancestors  so 
named,  i.  4  sqq.,  15  sqq.,  ii.  161  sq.  ; 
connexion  with  Wesleyanism,  i. 
7  sq.,  11  ;  moral  traits,  12. 

Bridges  :  article  on  spiral  courses,  i. 
148  ;  design  for  cheap  type,  i.  178. 

Bright,  Dr.,  i.  414. 

Bright,  John,  M.P.,  meetings  with,  i. 
219,  302. 

Brighton,  S.'s  visits  to,  i.  459,  491,  511, 
ii.  65,362,411,447. 

British  Association  :  proposed  paper 
by  S.,  i.  434 ;  affairs  discussed  by 
X  Club,  ii.  116;  Nottingham  meet- 
ing, ii.  142  sq.  ;  Liverpool,  ii.  219  ; 
Edinburgh,  ii.  230  ;  Belfast,  ii.  282  ; 
York,  ii.  371  ;  Montreal,  ii.  384, 
392. 

British  Quarterly  Review  :  introduction 
to,  i.  415  ;  contributions,  i.  444  sq., 
ii.  48  ;  review  of  First  Principles, 
u.  257. 

Bromsgrove  :  i.  91,  96,  180  ;  railway 
bridge,  i.  172  ;  locomotive  explosion, 
i.  169,  183. 

Brooke,  Anna  Maria,  i.  101. 

Brooke,  Harold,  i.  101. 

Brother  ton,  Mr.,  M.P.,  i.  302. 

Brimel,  I.  K. :  angry  interview  with, 
i.  327 ;  honoured  for  his  failiures, 
i.  328. 

Brunetiere,  Comtesse  de,  meeting  with, 
i.  329. 

Bryant,  Edwin  W.,  a  generous  Ameri- 
can, ii.  268  sq. 

Buckle,  H.  T.  :  meetings  with,  i.  512, 
ii.  4,  19,  91  ;  Huxley's  opinion,  ii.  4. 
Cf.  ii.  484. 

Buonaroti,  see  Michael  Angelo. 

Burdeau,  A.,  French  translator,  ii.  310. 

Burdett  -  Coutts,  Baroness  :  philan- 
thropy, i.  434  ;  meeting  with,  i.  372. 

Bureaucracy,  tendency  towards  in- 
creasing, ii.  368. 

Burgess,  J.  B.,  R.A.  :  portrait  of  S.,  ii. 
235  ;   his  artistic  merits,  ih. 

Burr,  Higford,  gatherings  at  Alder- 
maston,  ii.  279. 

Busk,  George:  friendship  with,  ii.  71  ; 
X  Club,  ii.  115  ;  meetings  and  tours, 
ii  214,  231,  235,  237,  318.  Cf. 
ii.  137  sq.,  484,  491  sq. 

Busk,  Mrs.  Geo.,  ii.  71,  116. 

Buxton,  Charles  M.P.,  meetings  with, 
i.  504,  ii.  95. 

33* 


516 


INDEX. 


Caibd,  Edward,  ii.  257. 

Cairns,  Prof.,  ii.  1 19. 

Cairo,  miserable  population,  ii.  335, 
cf.  342. 

Campbell,  James,  co-proprietor  of 
Header,  ii.  119,  120. 

Canada :  financial  relations  to  mother- 
country,  ii.  392  aq. ;  visit  to,  ii.  392 
sqq. 

Capital  punishment,  opposed  by  R«v. 
Thos.  Spencer,  i.  37. 

Cardwell,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  meeting  with, 
ii.  94. 

Carlyle,  Thomas  :  admiration  for  harsh 
schoolmaster,  i.  121 ;  acknowledges  a 
copy  of  S.'s  first  pamphlet,  i.  230  sq.  ; 
Sartor  Resartus,  i.  242  ;  doctrine  of 
renimciation,  i.  279  sq.  ;  Cromwell, 
i.  295 ;  influence  on  S.,  i.  312 ; 
opinion  of  the  Great  Exhibition, 
i.  373,  380;  visits  to,  i.  379 
sq.  ;  unphilosophical  traits,  i. 
380  sq.  ;  moral  traits,  i.  382  ;  his 
good  points,  i.  383  ;  his  character 
how  far  innate,  ib.  ;  unfitted  for  a 
guide,  i.  384. 

Carnegie,  Andrew :  meeting  with, 
i.  366  ;  surprised  at  S.'s  dietetic 
fastidiousness,  ib.  ;  S.'s  host  at 
Pittsburg,  ii.  396  sq.  ;  presents  a 
piano  to  S.,  ii.  453. 

Carpenter,  W.  B. :  Principles  of  Physio- 
logy reviewed,  i.  384,  ii.  8  ;  meetings 
with,  ii.  41,  90.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

Carrau,  L.,  on  Hegel  and  Spencer, 
ii.  489  n. 

Cafisell,  Mr.,  founder  of  Standard  of 
Freedom,  i.  329,  331. 

Castle-building :  S.'s  passion  for,  i.  76, 
123,  174  sq.  ;  ii.  435. 

Cathedral  music,  grandeur  of,  i.  431,  cf. 
ii.  218. 

Causation  :  S.'s  belief  in  its  universality, 
i.  89,  152,  211,  417,  ii.  5  sq.,  89  sq.  ; 
inherited,  ii.  431. 

Cautley,  Sir  P.  T.,  ii.  484. 

Cay  ley.  A.,  supporter  of  S.,  ii.  258. 

Cazelles,  Dr.  E.,  French  translator, 
ii.  312. 

Cephalograph,  S.'s  proposed  appliance 
for  head  measurement,  i.  297,  540  sqq. 

Ceremonial  Institutions,  ii.  303  sq.,  312, 
325,  327,  330. 

Chalk  Farm,  railway  terminus  in  1837, 
i.  129. 


Chalmers,  Dr.  Thos.,  ii.  159. 

Chamberlain,  Joseph,  at  a  disestablish- 
ment dinner,  ii.  260. 

Charribers's  Journal,  i.  88,  109. 

Chambers,  Robert,  Vestiges,  L  269, 
348. 

Chapman,  Dr.  John:  meeting  with, 
i.  294 ;  weekly  soirees,  i.  347,  394 ; 
publishes  S.'s  Social  Statics,  i.  356  sqq. 
{cf.  ii.  449)  ;  he  and  Miss  Evans 
choose  a  wife  for  S.,  i.  365  {cf.  394)  ; 
proprietorship  of  Westminster  Re- 
view, i.  372  ;  attack  on  booksellers, 
i.  392 ;  relations  with  Comte,  i. 
492  ;  editorial  relations  with  S., 
ii.  32  ;  business  failure,  ii.  33,  70 ; 
learns  George  Eliot's  identity  from 
S.,  u.  38.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

Character,  effect  on  institutions,  ii. 
366  sq. 

Chartist  movement,  i.  218  sqq. 

Cheops,  most  accursed  of  men,  ii.  342. 

Chesson,  F.  W.,  ii.  376. 

Chicago  Daily  Neios,  misstatement 
concerning  S.'s  finances,  ii.  372. 

Children :  imposing  aspect  of  tho 
world  to,  i.  67  ;  fondness  for  on- 
tological  questions,  i.  68 ;  in- 
stinctively naturalists,  i.  71  ;  political 
position,  i.  361  ;  S.'s  relations  with, 
i.  498,  cf.  ii.  447  sq. 

Chikls,  G.  W.,  of  Philadelphia,  ii.  401. 

Christianity  :  Mr.  Mozley's  conception, 
i.  46  sq.  ;  S.'s  attitude,  i.  151,  cf.  ii. 
467  sq.  ;  aggressive  tendencies  as- 
sociated with  profession,  ii.  375 ; 
a  needful  qualification,  ii.  382, 
cf.  ii.  458.      See  also  Religion. 

Church  and  State :  T.  Spencer's 
attitude,  i.  27,  37  ;  S.'s  letters  to  the 
Nonconformist,  i.  209,  cf.  237  ; 
separation  scheme,  ii.  259. 

Church  reform,  T.  Spencer  an  advo- 
cate of,  i.  29  sqq. 

Civil  Engineer  and  Architect's  Journal, 
contributions  to,  i.  149,  164,  178, 
195,  200,  517,  520,  522. 

Clark,  Sir  James,  Bt.,  ii.  484. 

Clark,  Rev.  W.  G.,  ii.  484. 
!  Clarke,  J.  Lockhart,  ii.  484. 

Classics,   teaching  of,   versus  science, 
I      ii.  36  sq.,  156,  cf.  441  sq. 
I  "  Classification  of  the  Sciences,"  ii.  168. 
;  Clough,   Arthur  Hugh,  meeting  with, 
i      ii.  62. 


INDEX. 


517 


Coaching :  early  reminiscences  of,  i. 
91  sq.,  97  ;  usages  repeated  in  rail- 
ways, i.  130. 

Cobb,  T.  P.,  ii.  355. 

Cohen,  Arthur,  meeting  with,  ii.  355. 

Coincidences :  strange,  i.  334,  453, 
ii.  360  sq.  ;  congruous  with  law  of 
probabiHty,  ii.  361. 

Colenso,  Bishop,  X  Club  guest,  ii.  114. 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  Idea  of  Life,  i.  351. 

Collier,  James,  S.'s  secretary  and  assist- 
ant, ii.  264,  270,  292,  349  sq. 

Colours,  scheme  for  naming,  i.  309  sq. 

Combe,  Andrew,  Principles  of  Physio- 
logy referred  to,  i.  431. 

Common  sense,  unreliability  of,  ii. 
201  (c/.  209). 

Complete  Suffrage  movement,  i.  30, 
33,  36,  218  8qq.,  247. 

Comte,  Auguste  :  S.'s  alleged  in- 
debtedness to,  i.  255  n.  (cf.  359, 
ii.  487  sqq.) ;  S.  reads  his  Exposition 
with  George  Eliot,  i.  398 ;  views 
discussed,  ib.,  444  sqq.,  461  sq.,  ii. 
106,  110,  465,  485  sqq.  ;  S.  pays  him 
a  visit,  i.  493  ;  advises  S.  to  marry,  ih. 

Conder,  Frank,  pupil  of  Charles  Fox, 
i.  131,  138. 

Conduct :  rewards  not  always  accord- 
ing to  merit,  i.  324,  ii.  380  sq.  ;  time 
makes  faults  conspicuous,  i.  355 ; 
results  from  desire,  ii.  366. 

Congregational  Board  of  Education, 
reprints  S.'s  views  on  State  educa- 
tion, i.  368. 

Congreve,  Dr.,  ii.  96. 

Consciousness  :  monopolized  by  emo- 
tions, i.  280  ;  duahty,  i.  396,  ii.  175. 

Conservation  of  Energy,  underlies 
doctrine  of  evolution,  i.  551. 

Contemporary  Ecview,  contributions  to, 
ii.  243  sq.,  245  254,  410. 

Contract,  ethical  principle  underlying, 
i.  451. 

Controversy,  reasons  for  avoiding,  ii. 
123  sq.,  246. 

Conway,  Moncure,  attitude  on  Ameri- 
can Civil  War,  ii.  210  sq. 

Conyngham,  Mr.,  M.P.,  for  Brighton, 
i.  512. 

Cooper,  Lady  White,  a  pupil  of 
W.  G.  Silencer,  i.  50,  556. 

Cooperation,  might  check  State- 
socialism,  ii.  369. 

Copyright  Commission,  ii.  164,  296. 


Com  Laws,  see  Anti-Com-Law  move- 
ment. 
Cornwall,  scheme  for  railway  in  1840-1, 

i.  178,  185. 
Creed  :    influence  on  character,  i.  20  ; 

adaptation  to  requirements,  ii.  468. 
Creuze,     Mr.,     of     Birmingham      and 

Gloucester  Railway,  i.  169,  183. 
Criminals,  rational  treatment  of,  ii.  49. 
Cripps,  Mrs.  W.  (nee  Potter),  lends  S. 

her  children,  ii.  412,  447  sq. 
Critics,  see  Reviewers. 
Crole,  Sarah,  of  Richmond,  Va.,  i.  16. 
Cross,    W.    J. :    Life    of    George    Eliot 

referred  to,  i.   393  ;    meeting  with, 

ii.  46. 
Cross,  ilrs.  W.  J.,  see  Ehot,  George. 
Cross,  Miss,  ii.  45. 
Crystal    Palace,    Sydenham :      raising 

of  first  column,   i.   407  ;     beautiful 

aspect,  i.  452. 
Gumming,  Dr.  John  :  preaching  fails  to 

convert  S.,  i.  433. 
Cyclograph,  devised  by  S.,  i.  149. 

Daily  News,  i.  329,  365  ;  views  on 
American  Civil  War,  ii.  498  sq. 

Daily  Telegraph,  views  on  American 
Civil  War  quoted,  ii.  498,  500. 

Dallas,  E.  S.,  ii.  484. 

Dante,  style,  i.  262. 

Darwin,  Charles :  paper  on  natural 
selection,  ii.  27  ;  acknowledges  copy 
of  Essays,  ib.  sq.  ;  Origin  of  Species, 
ii.  50,  99,  220 ;  Eyre  case,  ii.  143  ; 
musical  theory,  ii.  238  sq.  Cf.  ii.  484. 

Darwin,  Dr.  Erasmus,  founder  of 
Derby  Phil.  Soc,  i.  549. 

Darwin,  Mr.  Erasmus,  meeting  with, 
ii.  91.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

Data  of  Ethics,  ii.  314  sq.,  324  sq. 

Davies,  Rev.  Llewelyn,  a  promoter  of 
Anti-Aggression  League,  ii.  376. 

Deacon,  A.  0.,  i.  465,  466,  508,  ii.  44. 

Debus,  Heinrich,  meetings  with,  ii.  355. 

Decimal  system  :  compared  with  duo- 
decimal, i.  216  sq.  ;  S.'s  appliance 
for  computing  equivalents,  i.  526  sq. 

Deepdene,  Dorking,  engineering  work 
at,  i.  163. 

Defford,  Avonbridge  at,  i.  173  sq. 

Degrees  :  S.'s  reasons  for  not  accepting, 
ii.  233  sq. 

Democracy  :  not  economical,  ii.  401  ; 
coercive  tendency,  ii.  466. 


618 


INDEX. 


De  Morgan,  Prof.,  ii.  484. 
Demostatics,  proposed  title  for  Social 

Statics,  i.  358  sq. 
Derby:  home  of  S.'s  ancestors,  i.  3, 
14  sq.  ;  birthplace,  i.  63 ;  re- 
collection of  All  Saints'  bells,  i.  65  ; 
W.  G.  Spencer  a  teacher  and  school- 
master, i.  65,  69 ;  S.'s  home 
in  Wilmot  Street,  i.  70,  ii.  153 ; 
change  in  surroundings  since  1827, 
ib. ;  a  future  Mayor  saves  S.'s 
life,  i.  74 ;  Philosophical  Society, 
i.  66,  73,  86  sq.,  190,  241,  549 ; 
Literary  Institution,  i.  88,  224, 
321  ;  S.'s  report  on  flood  in  1842, 
i.  203  ;  poUtical  agitation  in  1842, 
i.  218  sq.  ;  Mr.  Hey  worth's  election, 
i.  315 ;  sanitary  activity,  ii.  34 ; 
S.  tries  for  stamp-distributorship, 
ii.  39. 
"  Derby  faith,"  estabhshed  by  John 

Spencer,  i.  25. 
Derby,  Earl  of,  ii.  39.   See  also  Stanley. 
Descriptive    Sociology :      scheme    for, 
ii.  172  sqq.,  252,  511  ;   execution,  ii. 
261  sq.,  264  sqq.  ;  American  support, 
ii.  266  ;  financial  failure,  ii.  267  sqq.  ; 
relations    with    compilers,   ii.    270 ; 
effect  on  S.'s  thought,  ii.  274  sq.,  c/. 
299,  467  ;  S.'s  utilization  of,  ii.  277  ; 
Russian    translation    and    compila- 
tion, ii.  288,  308  ;    losses  and  ter- 
mination, ii.  348  sqq. 
Designs,    S.'s    scheme    for  systematic 

production,  i.  309. 
Development  hypothesis :  Humboldt's 
attitude,  i.  295  ;  influence  on  S.'s 
thought,  i.  348,  368,  428,  436  sq., 
469,  ii.  7  ;  essay  on,  i.  387  sq.,  500, 
ii.  8,  27. 


Dixon, W.  Hepworth,  ii.  484. 
Dockray,   appliance   for  mail-bags,  i. 

150. 
Drawing,    importance    in    education, 

i.  132. 
Dreams :    taken    for   realities,  i.    73  ; 

effect  jof  morphia,  ii.  174  sqq.  ;    ful- 
filments congruous  with  probabiUties, 

ii.  361. 
Drysdale,  G.,  ii.  484. 
Dumas,  J.  B.,  on  relations  of  plants 

and  animals,  i.  533. 
Duncan,   Dr.    David :    note   to  Avio- 

biography,   i.     v-vi,    S.'s    secretary 

and  assistant,  ii.  172  sq.,  270,  292 ; 

professor  at  Madras,  ii.  215  sq. 
Duodecimals,  advantages  of,  i.  216  sq., 

531  sq. 
Duty,     due     discharge     affected      by 

physical  state,  ii.  424. 
Dymond,    Jonathan,    Essays    on    the 

Principles  of  Morality,  i.  305  sq. 
Dyspepsia,  cured  by  dining  out,  ii.  26, 

73,  296. 

E.,  A.  B ,  see  B . 

Earp,  Mr.,  Derby  friend,  ii.  125. 
Earth,  essay  on  form  of,  i.  313,  546  sqq. 
Ecclesiastical  Institutions,  ii.  410. 
Eclectic  Review,  i.  225. 
Economist    newspaper,     i.     329     sq.  ; 

S.'s  sub-editorship,  i.  330,  333  sq., 

341  sqq.,  415. 
Edinburgh    Review,    contributions    to, 

i.  409,  445,  450. 
Edinburgh    University :    professorship 

of  moral  philosophy,  ii.  147. 
Edison,  T.    A.  :   contempt  for  college 

training,    i.     167    n.,    337  ;     aerial 

machine,  i.  301. 


Dickens,  Charles,  presides  at  meeting  \  Edmunds,  filr.,  S.'s  secretary,  ii.  356. 
of  authors,  i.  393.  j  Education  :    connexion  of  S.'s  family 


"  Dickie  of  Dry  hope,"  ii.  159 

Dictation,  effect  on  style,  ii.  35,  200, 
316. 

Diderot,  Denis,  dramatic  truth  in  Le 
Neveu  de  Rameau,  ii.  442. 

Digestion,  affects  mental  activity,  ii. 
422. 

Dillwyn,  L.  L.,  M.P.,  a  promoter  of 
Anti-Aggression  League,  ii.  376. 

Disestabhshment,  societies  and  schemes 
aiming  at,  i.  237  sq.,  ii.  259. 

Dissolution,  complementary  to  evolu- 
tion, i.  553,  554,  ii.  168. 


with,  i.  17  sq.,  23,  28,  37  ;  methods 
of  S.'s  father  and  uncle,  i.  .50,  72  sq., 
74  sq.,  82,  85,  89  ;  need  for  amuse- 
ments, i.  1 16  ;  liigh  order  of  teacher's 
functions,  i.  119  sqq.  ;  ideal  institute, 
i.  123 ;  Edison's  contempt  for 
college-training,  i.  167  n.  ;  import- 
ance of  sesthetic  culture,  i.  204 ; 
letter  to  Nonconformist  on  State 
interference,  i.  209  ;  current  systems 
criticized,  i.  336  sq.,  478,  cf.  486, 
ii.  262  sq.,  321  ;  views  in  Social 
Statics,    i.    363,    368 ;     lessons    on 


INDEX. 


519 


conduct  wanted,  i.  410  sqq.  ;  S.'s 
qualification  for  writing  on,  i.  498  ; 
Benthamite  view,  ii.  89  ;  traits  de- 
veloped in  teaching,  ii.  437  sqq.  ; 
influence  on  mental  attitude,  ii.  487. 

Edxication,  Intellectual :  Sfc,  essays  on, 
i.  225,  409,  434,  436,  sqq.,  ii.  19,  34, 
65  (c/.  i.  158,  498)  ;  evolutionary 
ideas,  ii.  18,  166 ;  French  official 
recognition,  ii.  347  ;  Greek  transla- 
tion of  Chap.  I,  ii.  356. 

Egypt :  a  visit  and  its  impressions,  ii, 
334  sqq.  ;  monuments,  ii.  335,  341 
sq.  ;  fine  sunsets  and  after-glow,  ii. 
336  sq.  ;  extremes  of  temperature, 
ii.  338  ;  a  land  of  decay  and  death, 
ii.  341. 

Electric  light,  domestic  use  of,  by 
Spottiswoode,  ii.  279. 

Electro-magnetic  engine,  S.'s  scheme 
for,  i.  170,  181,  182,  190,  cf.  195  sq. 

EUot,  C.  W.,  President  of  Harvard,  X 
Club  guest,  ii.  278. 

Eliot,  George  (nee  Marian  Evans) :  pro- 
poses a  wife  for  S.,  i.  365  ;  takes  part 
in  dispute  with  booksellers,  i.  393  ; 
bold  handwriting,  ib.  ;  initiation  of 
friendship,  i.  394  sqq.  ;  physical 
traits,  i.  395  ;  cultivation  of  singing, 
ib.  (cf.  ii.  73) ;  moral  and  emotional 
traits,  i.  396  sqq.  ;  reads  Comte  ■with 
S.,  i.  398  {cf.  445,  ii.  364,  487) ;  urged 
by  S.  to  write  fiction,  i.  398  (cf.  492,  ii. 
38,  364) ;  S.'s  rumoured  courtship,  i. 
399 ;  surprised  that  S.  shows  no 
wrinkles,  ib.  ;  discloses  a  secret  to 
him,  ii.  38  ;  he  fails  to  keep  it,  ib.  ; 
discusses  programme  of  philosophy, 
ii.  51  (cf.  32)  ;  witticisms,  ii.  203  ; 
irreverence  for  humanity,  ii.  204 ; 
opinion  of  Wagner's  music,  ii.  298  ; 
plays  la-ftTi-tennis,  ii.  305  ;  sympathy 
with  her  characters,  ib.  ;  her  death, 
ii.  363 ;  S.'s  influence,  ib.  sq.  ; 
burial,  ii.  365.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

Eliotson,  Dr.,  foimder  of  The  Zoist,  i. 
227. 

Ellicott,  Dr.  C.  J.,  Bishop  of  Gloucester : 
gives  S.  an  overdose  of  metaphysics, 
ii.  294 ;  suppression  of  "  Mjmheer 
van  Dunck,"  ib.  sq.  ;  obliged  to 
defend  polygamy,  ii.  295. 

Elliot,  Sir  T.  Frederick,  tact  on 
Athena;um  Committee,  ii.  281. 

Elton,  Mr.,  meeting  with,  ii.  355. 


EI  win.  Rev.  W.,  editor  of  Quarterly 
Review,  ii.  20. 

Emerson,  R.  W. :  essays  read,  i.  242  sq., 
312;  on  love,  i.  267 ;  Rev.  T.  Spencer's 
impression  of,  i.  294  ;  the  majesty  of 
Nature,  i.  431  ;  S.'s  visit  to  his 
family,  ii.  405. 

Emotions  :  not  identical  with  sensa- 
tions, ii.  21  ;  physical  effects,  ii.  26, 
420  sq.  ;  Bain's  views,  ii.  46  ;  intel- 
lect affected  by,  ii.  143,  444  ;  deter- 
mined by  accident,  ii.  446  sq.  ;  com- 
plex factors,  ii.  448. 

Engineering  :  random  living  fostered 
by,  i.  141  ;  training  of  leading  men, 
i.  337  sq. 

EngUshmen,  national  traite,  i.  32  sq., 
394,  449,  ii.  374  (cf.  ii.  306). 

Ericsson,  John,  on  value  of  technical 
training,  i.  337. 

Essays,  Sfc,  ii.  4,  98,  256. 

Ethics  :  knowledge  of  right  and  wrong 
not  revealed,  i.  266  ;  "  poetical  jus- 
tice "  a  myth,  i.  324,  cf.  ii.  380  sq.  ; 
S.'s  work  Social  Statics  primarily 
ethical,  i.  358  sq.,  361  (cf.  ii.  273) ; 
object  stated,  ii.  88  ;  religion  of  the 
future,  ii.  468. 

Euclid,  W.  G.  Spencer's  teaching,  i. 
45,  48,  54. 

Euston  Station,  iron  roof,  i.  131. 

Evans,  Henry,  ii.  372. 

Evans,  Sir  John,  lines  on  iUlman's  B.  A. 
address,  ii.  329. 

Evans,  Marian,  see  Eliot,  George. 

Evarts,  Senator,  U.S.A.,  presides  at 
dinner  to  S.,  ii.  406. 

Evatt,  John,  of  Derby,  i.  14. 

Evening  Mail  (New  York),  erroneous 
statements  concerning  S.,  ii.  266  sq. 

Evening  Post  (New  York),  ii.  512. 

Evolution :  S.'s  early  ideas,  i.  vii-viii, 
i.  176  (cf.  ii.  6) ;  germs  in  essays,  i. 
210  sq.,  360,  364,  438,  442,  501,  551  ; 
inception  of  general  doctrine  in  essay 
on  Progress,  i.  462,  cf.  ii.  310  ;  anthro- 
pocentricism  of  early  views,  i.  500 ;  the 
word  introduced  in  "  Transcendental 
Physiology,"  i.  503  (cf.  443) ;  differ- 
entiation, &c.,  enunciated,  i.  503  ; 
applied  to  music,  i.  507  ;  physical 
doctrines  underlying,  i.  551  ;  its 
cardinal  principles  stated,  i.  553  sq.  ; 
growth  of  S.'s  ideas  reviewed,  ii. 
5    sqq.,    19,    165    sqq.  ;    applied    to 


520 


INDEX. 


education,  ii.  18 ;  astronomy,  ii. 
21  sq.  ;  geological  evidence,  ii. 
43  sq.  ;  reinforced  by  theory  of 
natural  selection,  ii.  50,  100  ;  doc- 
trine developed  in  First  Principles, 
ii.  74  ;  primary  traits  found  to  be 
secondary,  ii.  112,  154  ;  spontaneous 
generation  incongruous  with,  ii.  219  ; 
application  to  ethics,  ii.  314 ; 
political  institutions,  ii.  373  ;  elabo- 
ration of  doctrine  S.'s  object  in  life, 
ii.  460  ;   to  what  end  7  ii.  469  sq. 

Exaggeration,  a  form  of  imveracity, 
i.  382. 

Examiner,  obituary  notice  of  J.  S.  Mill, 
ii.  249,  506  sqq. 

Exhibition,  1851 :  divergent  opinions 
respecting  it,  i,  373  ;  removal  of 
buildings  a  blunder,  i.  374. 

Exhibition,  1862,  ii.  77. 

Experience,  does  not  always  teach,  ii. 
281  (c/.  288). 

Express  (extinct  daily  paper),  quoted, 
499  sq. 

Eyre,  Governor,  ii.  139,  142  sq. 

"  Factoes  of  Organic  Evolution,"  ii. 
410  ;  proofs  read  by  Huxley,  ii.  476. 

Falconer,  H.,  ii.  484. 

Farm-house  life,  pleasiu-es  of,  i.  73. 

Ferrier,  Prof.  D.,  revivification  of  ideas, 
i.  247. 

FertiUty,  varies  with  conditions,  ii.  131. 

Fiction,  attitude  of  Methodists,  cf.  i. 
77. 

Field  newspaper,  contribution  to,  ii. 
214,  504. 

First  Principles  :  ii.  61  sqq.,  74  {cf.  ii. 
455) ;  agnostic  view  anticipated,  i. 
346 ;  first  outline,  ii.  15  ;  recep- 
tion, ii.  75  ;  object  of  Part  I  "  The 
Unknowable,"  ib.  ;  reorganization, 
ii.  112,  154  sq.,  163,  165  sqq.; 
Gazelles'  introduction  to  French 
translation,  ii.  226 ;  its  critics,  ii. 
256  sq.,  358. 

Fishes,  tactile  organs,  in  Nile,  ii.  339. 

Fishing :  alleged  superiority  of  local 
flies  contested,  i.  485,  491,  ii.  436  ; 
pursued  by  S.  as  a  sedative,  i.  506, 
ii.  213  (cf.  i.  72  sq.,  80)  ;  not  "  mur- 
derous "  sport,  ii.  213  (cf.  i.  81) ;  S.'s 
new  rod  joint,  ii.  214,  436,  504  sq. 

Fiske,  John,  ii.  212 ;  meeting  with,  ii, 
405. 


Flint,  Prof.  Robert :  S.'s  reeusons  for 

not  accepting  hon.  degree,  ii.  233  sq. 
Flying  machines,  i.  301  sq. 
Forbes,  A.,  meeting  with,  ii.  355. 
Forbes,  Prof.  Edward,  i.  434,  461. 
Forgues,  Emile  de,  ii.  484. 
Forsyth,  Wm.,  M.P.,  meeting  with,  ii. 

297. 
Fortnightly  Review,  contributions  to,  ii. 

121,  216,  232,  254,  ,354. 
Fortune,  good  and  bad,  as  factors  in 

Ufe,  i.  324. 
Fox,  Archibald,  i.  199. 
Fox,  Sir  Charles:   a  pupil  of  W.   G, 

Spencer,  i.  65  ;    acquaintance  with, 

i.    105  sq.  ;    S.'s  engineering  chief, 

i.  125,  129,  130  sqq.  {cf.  278,  281). 
Fox,  Dr.,  of  Derby  (father  of  Sir  Charlee 

Fox),  i.  50,  65. 
Fox,  Henderson  &  Co.,  i.  281. 
France  :    contrast  between  Paris  and 

provinces,    i.    457  ;     juvenility    of 

Frenchmen,  i.  458  ;    translations  of 

S.'s    works,    ii.    126,    283 ;     official 

recognition  of  S.'s  works,  ii.  326,  347. 
Franchise  :    dangers  of  extension,   ii. 

55  sq.  ;  S.'s  earlier  and  later  opinions, 

ii.  366. 
Frankland,  [Sir]  Edward,  ii.  115,  484  ; 

XClub,  ii.  115. 
Eraser,  Prof.  A.  C,  i.  483. 
Eraser's  Magazine,  contribution  to,  i. 

507  sq. 
Freedom  :     S.'s  doctrine  of  equality, 

i.  361  sqq.  ;    current  conception  of, 

i.  439  sqq. 
Fremantle,  Canon  W.  H.,  a  promoter 

of  Anti-Aggression  League,  ii.  376. 
French,  see  France. 
Froude,  J.  A.,  meeting  with,  i.   347. 

Cf.  ii.  484. 
Fimerals,  S.'s  objection  to  attending, 

ii.  318. 

Galton,  Francis,  co-editor  of  Reader,  ii. 

119. 
Games,  good  for  adults,  ii.  306. 
Garrett,  J.  W.,  of  Baltimore,  ii.  400  sq. 
Garrison,  Lloyd,  pubUc  recognition  of, 

ii.  157. 
Gaskell,   Mrs.,   S.'s   opinion   of     Mary 

Barton,  i.  350. 
Genealogies,  value  of,  i,  3,  11,  21. 
"Genesis  of  Science,"  i.  391,  600  sq., 

ii.  10,  106. 


INDEX. 


521 


GenitiB,  Carlyle'a  definition  wrong,  i. 
382. 

Geology,  Lyell's  views  rejected,  i.  176. 

Geometry :  W.  G.  Spencer's  method 
of  teaching,  i.  48  aq.,  53  ;  S.'s 
theorem,  i.  164,  520  sq.  ;  marvellous 
truths  of  the  Geometry  of  Position, 
i.  164  sq.  ;  practical  application  in 
locomotive  work,  i.  165. 

George,  Henry :  policy  for  taxing 
out  landlords,  ii.  369  ;  Perplexed 
Philosopher,  ii.  459  sq. 

Germany,  translations  of  S.'s  works, 
u.  283. 

Ghost  theory,  enunciated  in  "  Manners 
and  Fashion,"  i.  443. 

Girard  College,  Philadelphia,  coercive 
discipline,  ii.  401. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.  :  Metaphysical  So- 
ciety, ii.  209 ;  controversy  with, 
ii.  264  (c/.  459)  ;  S.'s  amicable  rela- 
tions, ii.  255,  297. 

Glee-singing,  ef.  i.  321,  ii.  73. 

Olobe,  views  on  American  Civil  War 
quoted,  ii.  500. 

Glyphography,  i.  195. 

Goethe,  J.  W.  von,  doctrine  of  renun- 
ciation, i.  279. 

Government  :  S.'s  early  views  on,  i. 
197,  207  sqq.,  229  ;  franchise  exten- 
sion, ii.  55 ;  earliest  forms,  ii. 
301  ;  question  of  sphere  pre-emi- 
nently practical,  ii.  373. 

Graham,  Prof.,  ii.  484. 

Grammar,  S.'s  aversion  from,  i.  108, 
159. 

Gray,  Prof.  Asa,  meetings  with,  ii.  117, 
405. 

Grazebrook,  Sidney,  on  origin  of 
famiUes  named  Brettell  and  Henzey, 
i.  4  sq. 

Great  Western  Railway,  i.  269,  325  sq. 

Greece,  Ancient :  art  criticized,  i.  207, 
ii.  442  sqq. 

Greece,  Modem  :  translation  of  Educa- 
tion, ii.  356. 

Greelev,  Horace,  a  visitor  to  Chapman, 
i.  348. 

Greenwich  Railway,  i.  139 

Greg,  W.  R.,  i.  372,  367,  409. 

Grosvenor  Square,  lit  by  oil  lamps,  i. 
132. 

Grote,  George  :  meetings  with,  ii.  19, 
121  ;  gives  S.  a  testimonial,  ii.  39  ; 
proposes  University  dignity  for  S.,  ii. 


147  ;   S.'s  impressions,  ii.  155  sq.  Cf. 

ii.  484. 
Grove,  Sir  William  R.,  Correlation  of 

Physical      Forces      influences      S.'s 

thoughts,  ii.  13. 
Growth,  effects  of  rapid,  i.  114. 
Guide-books,  misdirections  in,  ii.  79. 
Guido,  '-Phoebus  and  Aurora"  criti- 
cized, ii.  190  sq. 
Gull,  Sir  Wm.,  meeting  with,  ii.  218. 
Gumey,  Edmund,  ii.  239. 
Guthrie,   Malcolm,  a  hostile  critic  of 

S.'s  philosophy,  ii.  358. 
Gutta-percha  :   its  introduction,  i.  312 

sq. 

Habitations,  evolution  of,  ii.  185  sq. 
Haeckel,  Ernst,  recommends  a  trans- 
lator, ii.  235. 
Hallam,  John,  Derbyshire  notable,  i. 

18. 
Hamilton,  Dr.  E.,  Recollections  of  Fly 

Fishing  referred  to,  ii.  436. 
Hamilton,  Lady  Claud,  meeting  with, 

ii.  355. 
Hamilton,  Miss,  meeting  with,  ii.  355. 
Happiness,  utilitarian  view,  ii.  88. 
Hare,  Thomas,  scheme  for  representa- 
tion, ii.  90. 
Harris,  George,  engineering  colleague, 

i.  131. 
Harrison,   Frederic  :    cooperates   with 
S.   in  scheme  for   disestabhshment, 
ii.  259  ;    anti-militant  agitation,  ii. 
330,    375 ;     meeting   with,    ii.    355. 
See  also  i.  256. 
Haydn's  "  Creation,"  i.  275. 
"  Haythome  Papers,"  i.  386,  406  sq. 
Hayward,  Abraham,  meeting  with,  ii. 

297. 
Heart,  the,  can  it  be  overtaxed  ?  i.  432. 
Hegel,   G.    W.    F.,    S.'s   views  on   his 

philosophy,  ii.  240,  cf.  ii.  489. 
Hegeler,    Mr.,    founder    of    The    Open 
Court :  generous  gift  to  S.,  ii.  372. 
i  Heldenmaier,  Dr.,  Pestalozzian  school, 
j      i.  322. 

I  Helmholtz,  Prof.  H.  L.  F.  von,  guest 
[      of  XClub,  ii.  117. 

Hemus,   ancestors   of  S.   named,  i.    6 
:       sq. 

I  Hennell,    Jliss    Sara,    meetings    with, 
i       i.  407,  ii.  411. 

Hensman,   H.,   engineering  colleague, 
!      i.  141. 


522 


INDEX. 


Henzey,  ancestors  of  S.  named,  i.  4  sq., 
ii.  162. 

Herald  and  Genealogist,  quoted,  i.  4  sq. 

Herbert,  Mr.,  Coimty  C!ovirt  Judge, 
i.  311. 

Herbert,  Hon.''Auberon,  note  to  Auto- 
biography, i.,  v.-vi. 

Heredity :  acquired  characters  ex- 
emplified in  S.,  ii.  430  sqq.  (cf.  i.  3, 
II  sq.). 

Herschel,  Sir  John,  attitude  to  "  Nebu- 
lar Hypothesis,"  ii.  22.    Cf.  ii.  484. 

Heyworth,  Lawrence,  M.P.,  an  early 
friend  of  S.,  i.  220,  245,  260,  277, 
294 ;   election  for  Derby,  i.  315. 

Higgins,  M.  J.  ("Jacob  Omnium"), 
meeting  with,  ii.  91. 

Hills,  Ith.,  international  arbitrator, 
Cairo,  ii.  343. 

Hinton  Charterhouse,  Bath  :  Rev.  T. 
Spencer's  incumbency,  i.  27  sqq., 
31,  38,  320,  415  ;  his  reforms  and 
experiments,  i.  28  sq.,  104 ;  S.'s  visits 
to,  i.  27,  91,  100,  213. 

Hirst,  T.  Archer:  X  Qub,  ii.  115; 
meeting  and  tour  with,  ii.  231  ; 
supporter  of  S.,  ii.  258. 

History,  relative  importance  of  socio- 
logy and,  ii.  253,  265,  352. 

Hobhouse,  Lord,  a  promoter  of  Anti- 
Aggression  League,  ii.  376. 

Hodgskin,  Thomas,  of  the  Economist, 
i.  347,  351. 

Hodgson,  Shadworth,  ii.  257. 

Holland,  Sir  Henry,  M.D.  :  meetings 
with,  ii.  19,  39  ;  advice  to  dyspeptics, 
ii.  73.    Cf.  ii.  484. 

Hollander,  Bernard,  on  a  phrenological 
hypothesis  of  S.,  i.  247. 

Holme,  George,  Mayor  of  Derby  :  saves 
author's  Ufe,  i.  74,  ii.  292  ;  his  high 
character,  i.  74.     Cf.  ii.  201,  292. 

Holmes,  John :  S.'s  grandfather,  i.  3, 
14  sq. ;  a  Wesleyan,  i.  11, 15 ;  marries 
Jane  Brettell,  i.  15  sqq.     Cf.  ii.  430. 

Holmes,  O.  W.,  meeting  with,  ii.  404. 

Holt,  Robert,  visit  to,  ii.  317. 

Holt,  Mrs.  Robert  {nee  Potter),  ii. 
251. 

Homer,  Iliad,  its  monotonous  repeti- 
tions, i.  262. 
Honours  :  not  awarded  for  merit,  i.  251 
sq.,  327  sq.  ;  declined  by  S.,  ii.  233  sq. 
Hooker,  Sir  J.  D. :  acceptance  of  Dar- 
win's views,  ii.  26 ;   gives  S.  a  testi- 


monial, ii.  39  {cf.  40) ;  criticizes 
proofs  of  Biology,  ii.  103  ;  X  Club, 
ii.  115;  tour  with  S.  tlu-ough  I.  of 
Wight,  ii.  244  ;  opinion  of  Descriptive 
Sociology,  ii.  350.     Cf.  ii  484. 

Hope.  H,  T.,  of  Deepdene,  i.  163. 

Houghton,  Lord :  meetings  with,  ii.  19, 
355  ;  visited  at  Fryston,  ii.  95  sq.  ; 
his  geniaUty,  ii.  96  ;  anecdote  of,  ib. 
Cf.  u.  484. 

Household  appliances,  vitiation  of,  ii. 
204  sq. 

Howitt,  William,  meeting  with,  i.  294. 

Hudson,  Prof.  W.  H.  (King's  College), 
on  W.  G.  Spencer's  Inventional 
Geometry,  i.  49. 

Hughes,  Mr.,  S.'s  colleague  on  Birming- 
ham and  Gloucester  Railway,  i.  144, 
148,  169,  173,  257,  270,  273; 
designed  Saltash  bridge,  i.  328. 

Hughes,  Thomas,  Q.C.  :  founder  of 
Reader,  ii.  1 18  ;  opposition  to  miU- 
tancy,  ii.  330. 

Hugo,  Victor,  a  visit  to,  in  Guernsey, 
i.  484. 

Huguenots,  S.'s  conjectured  descent 
from,  i.  6  sq. 

Hullah,  Dr.  John,  Wilhelm's  musical 
method,  i.  196. 

Humanity,  erratic  tendency,  ii.  204, 

Humboldt,  Baron  von,  leaning  to 
development  hypothesis,  i.  295. 

Hunt,  Alfred,  i.  465. 

Hunt,  Holman,  meeting  with,  ii.  355. 

Hunt,  Leigh,  relations  with,  i.  407. 

Hunt,  T.  L.,  ii.  484. 

Huth,  Alfred,  ii.  90. 

Huth,  Henry :  meeting  with,  ii.  90 ; 
co-proprietor  of  Reader,  ii.  119;  a 
shooting  visit  to,  ii.  229. 

Hutton,  R.  H.,  hostile  critic,  i.  468 
sq.,  ii.  209. 

Hutton,  Mr.  (brother  of  R.  H.),  i.  274. 

Huxley,  Leonard  :  letter  to,  concerning 
statements  in  Life  and  Letters  of 
T.  H.  Huxley,  ii.  475  sq.  ;  his  recti- 
fication in  Athenccum,  ii.  477  sq. 

Huxley,  T.  H.  :  friendship  initiated, 
i.  402  ;  versatility,  i.  403  ;  humour, 
ih.  ;  two  faults,  i.  404  ;  conception 
of  science,  i.  419 ;  honeymoon  at 
Tenby,  i.  473 ;  prescribes  gynoeo- 
pathy  for  S.,  i.  493 ;  New  Year 
dinners,  i.  499,  ii.  279  ;    walks  and 

i      talks  with,  i.  505,  ii.  3  sq.  ;    keeps 


INDEX. 


523 


an  open  mind  on  evolution,  i.  505  ; 
rebukes  S.'s  pessimism,  ii.  4  ;  attack 
on  Owen,  ii.  25  ;  gives  S.  testimonial, 
ii.  39 ;  helps  S.  in  launching  his 
philosophy,  ii.  51  ;  criticizes  proofs 
of  Biology,  ii.  103  (c/.  475  sqq.) ;  X 
Club,  ii.  115,  118  ;  co-editor  of  the 
Reader,  ii.  118  sq. ;  assists  S.  in  his 
difficulties,  ii.  136  sq.,  491  sqq. ;  Eyre 
case,  ii.  143  ;  mutual  badinage, 
ii.  216  ;  B.  A.  presidential  address, 
ii.  219  ;  cooperates  in  Int.  Scientific 
Series,  ii.  230  ;  muses  with  S.  on 
naked  humanity,  ib.  ;  "  Adminis- 
trative NihiHsm,"  ii.  232 ;  tour 
through  Isle  of  Wight,  ii.  244  ;  how 
far  he  was  "  devil's  advocate  "  to 
S.,  ii.  476  sq. 

Hydropathic   estabUshments,    become 
pleasure  resorts,  i.  449  sq. 

Hymns,  effect  on  S.  of  learning,  i.  151. 

Idleness,  a  constitutional  trait  of  S., 
i.  147,  189,  296,  341. 

"  Illogical  Geology,"  ii.  43. 

Imitation,   phrenological  essay  on,   i. 
225,  227. 

Immortahty,    S.'s    attitude,    ii.    379, 
cf.  381. 

Individuality,  a  trait  of  S.'s  family, 
i.  24  (cf.  208). 

Inductive  method,  pursued  by  S.  along 
with  deductive,  i.  305,  ii.  127,  431. 

Inertia,  Amott's  dictum  criticized, 
i.  103  (c/.  ii.  0,  431,  438). 

Ingle  by,  near  Derby,  S.'s  early  visits 
to,  i.  72  sq.,  99. 

Insomnia,  remedies  for,  i.  480,  ii.  92. 

InstabiUty  of  the  homogeneous,  enun- 
ciated, i.  503. 

Intellect :  moral  elevation  indepen- 
dent of,  ii.  64  ;  affected  by  physical 
state,  ii.  417  sqq.  ;  accidental 
development,  ii.  446  sq.  See  also 
Reason. 

International  Scientific  Series :  pro- 
jected by  Youmans,  ii.  227 ;  Euro- 
pean arrangements,  ii.  230  sqq.,  242. 

Invalid  bed,  S.'s  invention,  ii.  147  sq., 
435,  494  sqq. 

Invenllonal  (Jeometry,  by  W.  G.  Spencer, 
i.  48  sqq.,  ii.  431,  436. 

Inventiouti :  rarely  lucrative,  i.  321 
(c/.  175),  ii.  32;  imply  constructive 
imagination,  ii.  436. 


Italy :  tour  in,  ii.  178  sqq.  ;  climate 
misrepresented,  ii.  179  ;  translations 
of  S.'s  works,  ii.  278. 

Jackson,  G.  B.  W.,  engineering  col- 
league :  i.  142  sq.  ;  twits  S.  on  his 
flirtations  and  fossils,  i.  178  sq.  ; 
treatment  by  Capt.  Moorsom  re- 
sented, i.  183  sq.  ;  complains  of 
overwork,  i.  185 ;  correspondence 
with,  i.  197  ;  opinion  of  S.'s  phreno- 
logical delineation,  i.  202  ;  counsels 
S.  against  politics  and  to  resume 
engineering,  i.  222 ;  joins  S.  in 
scheme  for  planing  engine,  i.  313, 
316 ;  expostulates  with  S.  on  his 
tendency  to  differ,  i.  332  sq.  ;  tries 
vegetarianism,  i.  349  ;  drowned  in 
New  Zealand,  i.  371. 
Jersey,  a  visit  to,  in  '54,  i.  458  sq. 
Johnson,  Dr.  Edward,  hydropathist,  i. 

413  sq.,  449,  484. 
Jones,  Dr.  H.  Bence,  inverse  effects  of 

drugs,  ii.  92.     Cf.  ii.  484. 
Jones,  Prof.  T.  Rymer,  pupil  of  W.  G. 

Spencer,  i.  66,  106. 
Journal    of   Education,   F.    C.  Turner 
on    W.     G.    Spencer's    Inventional 
Geometry,  i.  48  sq. 
Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute, 

i.  247. 
Journalism,   exaggeration   fostered,  i. 

28. 
Judgment :   affected  by  bodily  state,  i. 
355sq.,i.4c87  sq.  ;  determined  largely 
by  feeling,  ii.  143. 
Jury  system,  application  to  schools,  i. 

50. 
Justice  :  sense  of,  predominant  in  S.,  i. 
184  ;    his  views  on  the  sentiment,  i. 
228  sq.,  379. 

Kant,  Immanuel:  views  dissented 
from,  i.  252  sqq.,  378  ;  the  objects  of 
his  awe,  i.  431  ;  conception  of  social 
science,  ii.  486. 

Kcat«,  John,  i.  295. 

Kershaw,  Mr.,  of  Manchester,  i.  244. 

Kieff,  Historical  Society,  proposed 
Russian  division  of  Descriptive 
Sociology,  ii.  288,  308. 

King,  H.  S.,  &  Co.,  publishers  of  Inter- 
national Scientific  Series,  ii.  258,  278. 

King's  College  School,  incident  at,  i. 
117. 


524 


INDEX. 


Kingsley,  Rev.  Charlea,  meeting  with, 

i.  408,  cf.  ii.  484. 
Kirkcaldy,  Lord,  anecdote  concerning, 

ii.  287. 
Kirk  Ireton,  home  of  Spencer  family, 

i.  9sqq.,  17,  cf.  i.  118. 
KJiowles,     Herbert,    poet,    S.    named 

after,  i.  64. 
Knowles,  [Sir]   James :    co-founder  of 

Metaphysical   Society,    ii.    209   sq.  ; 

editor  of  CorUemporart/,  ii.  243  sqq.  ; 

his  tact,  ii.  245. 
Kugler,     F.     T.,     over-laudation     of 

Raphael,  ii.  188. 
Kyanized  timber,  S.'e  experiments  on, 

i.  153,  166. 

Laos  manufacture,  S.'s  relations  specu- 
late in,  i.  23,  68,  325. 

Lamarck,  J.  B.,  S.'s  early  leaning  to 
his  views,  i.  176,  552,  ii.  7. 

Land  Question,  Henry  George's  attack 
on  S.,  ii.  459  sq. 

Landowners,  opposition  to  railways, 
i.  283,  284. 

Language :  S.'s  suggestions  for  uni- 
versal, i.  216,  628  sqq.  ;  words 
impede  correct  thinking,  ii.  301. 

Lankester,  E.  Ray,  essay  on  "  Long- 
evity," ii.,  216. 

Larkin,  H.,  Carlyle  and  Mr  a.  Carlyle, 
referred  to,  i.  381. 

Latham,  R.  G.,  ii.  484. 

Latin,  S.'s  repugnance  to,  i.  84,  88, 
102,  c/.  i.  116,  159. 

Laugel,  Auguste :  review  of  First 
Principles,  ii.  1 10  ;  guest  of  X  Club, 
ii.  117. 

Law  :  S.'s  belief  in  its  universality, 
i.  211  ;  conception  of,  still  rudimen- 
tary, i.  511. 

Law,  Archdeacon,  i.  26. 

"  Laws  of  Organic  Form,"  ii.  28  sq. 

Laycock,  Prof.,  ii.  484. 

Leader,  The,  contributions  to,  i.  385  sqq. 

Legible  Shorthand,  by  W.  G.  Spencer, 
see  Lucid  ShortJtand. 

Leidy,  Prof.  Joseph,  meeting  with, 
ii.  401. 

Leslie,  T.  E.  Clifle,  meeting  with,  ii. 
121. 

Levelling  appliances  devised  by  S., 
i.  287,  638,  cj.  ii.  435. 

Levi,  Leone,  ii.  376. 

Lewes,  G.  H.  :    first  meeting,  i.  348  ; 


joins  S.  in  Sunday  rambles,  i.  376  sq. 
(cf.  385,  407,  ii.  28,  69,  215);  an 
attractive  companion,  i.  377  ; 
versatility,  ib.  ;  plays  Shylock  after 
lecturing  on  philosophy,  ib.  ;  moral 
qualities,  ib.  ;  S.  reads  his  books, 
i.  378  ;  Hist,  of  Philosophy  stimu- 
lates S.'s  thoughts,  i.  379,  392; 
introduces  S.  to  Carlyle,  ib.  ;  story 
of  Carlyle's  combativeness,  i.  382  ; 
falls  a  prey  to  Huxley's  wit,  i.  403  ; 
attitude  towards  S.'s  Psychology, 
i.  468  ;  advises  S.  to  get  a  living  by 
inventions,  ii.  32 ;  joins  S.  in  glee- 
singing,  ii.  73 ;  controversy  about 
Comte,  ii.  Ill,  485  sqq.  {cf.  i.  446, 
ii.  204) ;  S.'s  visits  to  the  Priory, 
ii.  202  sq.  ;  irreverence  for  humanity, 
ii.  204 ;  he  and  George  EHot  take  to 
lawn-tennis,  ii.  305  ;  death,  ii.  318  ; 
attachment  to  George  Eiiot,  ib.  sq.  ; 
two  good  traits,  ii.  319.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

Lewes,  Mrs.  G.  H.,  see  EUot,  George. 

Lewis,  Sir  G.  Cornewall  :  editorial 
relations  with  S.,  i.  444,  450,  462  ; 
gives  S.  a  testimonial,  ii.  39 ; 
appealed  to  for  an  office,  ii.  44. 

Liberalism,  earlier  and  later,  contrasted, 
i.  208,  421. 

Liberation  of  Religion  from  State 
Patronage,  &c.,  Society  for,  i.  238. 

Lickey  Hill,  the  "  Rose  and  Crown,"  i. 
96. 

Lickey  incline,  testing  locomotives  on, 
i.  179. 

Life  :  relation  between  work  and,  i.  411 
sqq.  ;  interpretation  in  the  Psycho- 
logy, i.  469  ;  constitutional  factors, 
ii.  420  sqq. 

Lingard,  Sir.,  a  Derby  friend  of  S.,  ii. 
328. 

Linnaean  Society,  S.'s  paper  on  plant 
circulation,  ii.  127. 

Linton,  Mrs.  Lynn,  i.  347. 

Literature,  advice  to  aspirants,  ii.  455 
sqq. 

Littr6,  M.  P.  E.,  ii.  485  ;  meeting  with, 
i.  458. 

Locality,  S.'s  remarkable  perception  of, 
i.  85,  111. 

Loch,  W.  F.,  engineering  friend,  i.  258, 
264  sqq.,  'Ill,  281,  349,  352,  ii.  236, 
356. 

Locke,  John,  essay  on  U  rider  standing, 
i.  252. 


INDEX. 


525 


Lockyer,  Sir  J.  Norman,  connexion 
with  the  Reader,  ii.  119. 

Locomotives :  character  in  1837,  i. 
130 ;  scheme  for  testing  water  for, 
i.  161  ;  appliance  for  showing  velo- 
city, i.  165,  522  sqq.  ;  appliance  for 
measuring  tractive  force,  i.  165;  trials 
of  Americans  on  Lickey  incline,  i. 
165,  179. 

Logic,  position  among  sciences,  ii. 
108,  239. 

London,  a  visit  to,  in  1837,  i.  129  sqq. 

London  and  Birmingham  Railway:  i. 
150;  reminiscence*  of,  i.  106,  125, 
130  sq.,  150,  185,  cf.  278,  292,  297. 

London  and  North- Western  Railway, 
i.  269. 

London  Library,  S.'s  membership  of 
committee,  ii.  281. 

London  Ratepayers'  Defence  League, 
ii.  460. 

Longman  <fe  Co.,  i.  451,  ii.  70. 

Lott,  Edward,  of  Derby :  life-long 
friend  of  S.,  i.  192  ;  high  character, 
ib.  sq.  ;  joins  S.  in  glee-singing,  i. 
196 ;  S.  makes  a  sketch  of  him,  i. 
198  ;  an  admirer  of  Carlyle,  i.  242  ; 
not  afraid  of  S.'s  influence,  i.  276; 
S.'s  companion  on  hohdays  and 
exciu-sions,  i.  317,  428  sqq.,  417,  473, 
ii.  25,  94,  101,  218,  311,  387  sqa.  ; 
mutual  visits,  ii.  77,  292,  296,  3*79 
(cf.  215) ;  tours  America  with  S.,  ii. 
383,  387  sqq.  ;  dubbed  by  reporters 
S.'s  "  leonine  friend,"  402. 

Letters  to :  Uterary  activities 
(1843),  i.  225  sq.  ;  on  the  faculty  of 
conscientiousness,  i.  228  ;  on  reading 
Emerson,  i.  242  sq.  ;  impressions  of 
Joseph  Sturge,  i.  251  ;  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Potter,  i.  260,  277;  Shelley, 
i.  261  ;  reUgious  discussions,  i.  265  ; 
his  marriage,  i.  266  sqq.  ;  Welsh 
scenery,  i.  270 ;  operas,  i.  274 ; 
quarrel  with  Fox,  Henderson  &  Co., 
i.  281  ;  railway  schemes,  i.  290 ; 
loneliness  in  London,  i.  320  ;  work 
on  the  Economist,  i.  341  sqq.  ;  Meyer- 
beer, i.  344  ;  Mary  Barton,  i.  350 ; 
an  abortive  matrimonial  scheme, 
i.  365 ;  studying  bones,  i.  368  ;  a 
visit  to  Carlyle,  i.  379  sq.  ;  mis- 
cellaneous topics,  i.  452  ;  on  standing 
for  Derby,  ii.  201  ;  emancipation 
from  early  beliefs,  ii.  288  sq.  ;  result 


of  dining  well,  ii.  296;  Rule  II 
elections  at  Athenseum,  ii.  297  ;  a 
Gladstone  dinner,  ib.  ;  wreck  of  the 
"  Dobhran,"  ii.  307  ;  Greorge  Eliot's 
death,  ii.  363;  Berlioz,  ii.  370; 
social  doings  in  the  north,  ii.  372 ; 
Riviera  experiences,  ii.  322,  323. 

Loutchitzky,  Prof.  Ivan,  KiefF,  ii.  288 
{cf.  308). 

Lovat,  Lord,  fishing  incident,  ii.  290  sq. 

Lowe,  George,  C.E.,  ii.  484. 

Lowe,  Robt.  [Lord  Sherbrooke] : 
meetings  with,  ii.  94,  297  ;  guest  of 
XClub,  ii.  117,235. 

Loyalty,  what  is  true  ?  ii.  464. 

Lubbock,  Sir  John  [Lord  Avebury] : 
friendship  initiated,  ii.  71  ;  his 
versatility,  72 ;  multifarious  occu- 
pations, ib.  ;  thoughtful  kindness, 
ii.  99  (cf.  136  sq.,  491  sq.) ;  Meta- 
physical Society,  ii.  209 ;  meetings 
with,  ii.  297,  &c.  ;   X  Club,  ii.  371. 

Lubbock,  Lady,  ii.  72. 

Lucid  Shorthand,  by  W.  G.  Spencer, 
i.  214,  240,  ii.  436. 

Lushington,  [Sir]  Godfrey,  meeting 
with,  ii.  95. 

Luther,  Martin,  gross  anthropomor- 
phism, ii.  189. 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  Principles  of 
Geology  criticized,  i.  176,  ii.  7,  43. 
Cf.  ii.  484. 

Lyme  Regis,  landslip  at,  ii.  318. 

Lynn,  Miss  Ehza,  see  Linton. 

Lyttelton,  Canon,  reprints  on  essay  by 
S.,  ii.  30. 

Macclesfield,  artisan  riot  at,  i.  22 

McCrealock,  Gren.,  meeting  with,  ii.  355. 

Mackay,  R.  W.,  ii.  484. 

McLennan,  J.  F.,  advises  S.  to  play  at 
racquets,  ii.  66. 

Macleod,  H.  Dunning,  ii.  484. 

McLeod,  Miss,  of  Dun  vegan,  ii.  307. 

MacmUlan's  Magazine,  contribution 
to,  ii.  49. 

Mail-bags,  Dockray's  apparatus  im- 
proved by  S.,  i.  150. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry  S.,  family  organiza- 
tion, ii.  289. 

Man  versus  the  State,  ii.  410. 

Mankind,  but  little  rational,  ii.  366. 

"  Manners  and  Fashion,"  i.  434,  442  sq., 
ii.  10. 

Mansel,  Dean  H.  L.,  ii.  257. 


526 


INDEX. 


Maxiwaring,  G.,  publisher,  ii.  70,  483. 

Marriage :  mercantile  view  once  general, 
i.  16  aq. ;  S.'b  opinions  on,  i.  267  sq., 
369,  478  (c/.  493,  ii.  113,  445,  456, 
462) ;   feelings  changed  by,  ii.  448. 

Martineau,  Miss  Harriet ;  Tales  of 
Political  Economy,  i.  110  ;  abridg- 
ment of  Comte  reviewed,  i.  445. 

Martineau,  Dr.  James  :  S.'s  contro- 
versy and  friendly  intercourse,  ii. 
245,  252 ;  on  Nonconformist 
austerity,  ii.  429. 

"  Martineau  on  Evolution,  Mr.,"  ii. 
245. 

Mason,  Mr.,  dissenting  minister,  Derby, 
i.  312,  346. 

Masson,  Prof.  David  :  introduces  S.  to 
reviews,  i.  415  ;  invites  S.  to  write 
for  Macmillan's,  ii.  48  ;  guest  of 
X  Club,  ii.  117  ;  proposes  professor- 
ship for  S.,  ii.  147  ;  visit  to,  ii.  158  sq.; 
early  conceptions  of  Sociology,  ii. 
485.     C/.  ii.  484. 

Masters,  Dr.  M.T.,  meeting  with,  ii.  355. 

Materialism,  repudiated  in  First  Prin- 
ciples, ii.  75. 

Mather,  Mr.,  Derby  schoolmaster:  S. 
becomes  his  assistant,  i.  122. 

Medical  students,  random  Uving  of,  i. 
141. 

Medico-Chirurgical  Review,  contribu- 
tions to,  ii.  24  sq.,  28  sq.,  46. 

Memory,  failure  ascribed  to  rapid 
growth,  i.  114. 

Merit,  not  always  duly  rewarded,  i.  34, 
60,  ii.  380  sq. 

Metaphysical  Society,  formation,  ii. 
209. 

Meteorology  :  phj'siological  effects,  at 
high  altitudes,  ii.  237  ;  affected  by 
local  land  surface,  ii.  251. 

•'  Method  in  Education,"  essay  by  S. 
afterwards  published  as  "  Art  of 
Education,"  i.  436  sqq. 

Methodism,  dress  of  early  followers, 
i.  19.     See  also  Wesleyanism. 

Methodist  Magazine,  account  of  Jere- 
miah Brettell  in,  i.  8. 

Metric  System,  S.'s  appUance  for  com- 
puting equivalents,  i.  526  sq.,  cf.  i. 
217. 

Metropolitan  Anti-State-Church  Asso- 
ciation, i.  237. 

Meyerbeer,  J.  L.,  excellence  as  operatic 
composer,  i.  344. 


Miall,  Edward,  Editor  of  Nonconformist : 
S.'s  introduction  to,  i.  208  ;  proposes 
journalistic  post  for  him,  i.  226 ; 
articles  on  suffrage  extension,  i. 
217  sq.  ;  promotes  movement  for 
Church  disendowment,  ii.  259. 

Michael  Angelo,  frescoes  criticized, 
ii.  189  sq. 

Midland  Railway,  i.  140,  332. 

Milan,  ii.  346. 

Mihtancy,  movement  for  checking,  ii. 
329  sq.,  SI 5  sqq. 

Mill,  John  Stuart :  System  of  Logic, 
i.  242,  252,  391,  416,  ii.  487  ;  con- 
nexion with  Westminster  Review,  i. 
372  ;  Carlyle's  attitude,  i.  381  ; 
S.'s  first  meeting  with,  i.  504 ; 
Essays,  ii.  19  ;  advice  sought  about 
post  at  India  Office,  ii.  23  (cf.  490)  ; 
gives  S.  a  testimonial,  ii.  39  ;  S.'s 
attitude  towards  utilitarianism, 
ii.  88  sq.  ;  lacked  discipline  in 
physical  science,  ii.  89 ;  co-pro- 
prietor of  Reader,  ii.  118  sq. ;  S.'s 
article  in  Fortnightly,  ii.  121  sq.  ; 
candour,  ii.  121  sq.,  124 ;  S.'s  per- 
sonal impressions,  ib.  ;  election 
meeting,  ii.  124  ;  generous  proposal 
to  help  S.,  ii.  133  sqq.,  507,  510; 
help  declined,  ii.  134  sqq.  ;  appeal 
for  subscriptions,  ii.  136  sq.,  491 
sq. ;  Eyre  case,  ii.  143  ;  interesting 
evening  with,  ii.  155 ;  attitude 
towards  science,  ii.  156 ;  dislike  of 
"  murderous  "  sport,  ii.  213  ;  pre- 
mature death,  ii.  247  ;  position  in 
world  of  thought,  ib.  sq.  ;  S.'s 
obituary  notice,  ii.  506  sqq.  Cf.  ii. 
484. 

Millais,  Sir  John  E.,  on  old  masters, 
ii.  196  n. 

Miller,  Hugh,  works  reviewed,  ii.  43  sq. 

Milne -Ed  wards,  Henri,  physiological 
division  of  labour,  ii.  166. 

Milnes,  R.  Monckton,  see  Houghton, 
Lord. 

Mind  :  interaction  of  body  and,  i.  355 
sq.,  487,  ii.  26  ;  duality,  i.  396  n.  ; 
idea  of  evolution  unpopular,  ii. 
220.     See  also  Psychology. 

Minturn,  R.  B.,  an  American  friend  of 
S.,  ii.  141  ;  S.'s  letter  on  American 
testimonial,  ii.  511. 

Molesworth,  Sir  W.,  connexion  with 
Westminster  Review,  i.  372,  421. 


INDEX. 


527 


Monarchy,  S.'s  views  on,  ii.  464  sq. 
Monotony,    S.'a    aversion   to,   i.   261, 
331. 

Mooreom,  Capt.  W.  S.,  chief  engineer, 
London  and  Birmingham  Railway: 
i.  138,  141,  145,  153,  155  sqq.,  165, 
172,  173  ;  his  kind  feeling  towards 
S.,  i.  161  eq.  ;  work  at  Deepdene,  i. 
163  ;  leaves  S.  in  charge  of  a  young 
lady,  i.  167  sqq.  ;  Cornish  railway 
scheme,  i.  178 ;  S.  regrets  aliena- 
tion, i.  183  sqq. 

Moorsom,  Mrs.,  i.  157. 

Moral  sentiments,  need  enlightenment 
in  complex  cases,  i.  143. 

"  Morals  of  Trade,"  ii.  29  sq. 

Morell,  Dr.  J.  D.  :  a  friendly  critic  of  S., 
i.  468  ;  witty  remark,  ii.  41.  Cf.  ii. 
484. 

Morley,  John,  M.P. :  cooperates  in 
scheme  for  disestablishment,  ii.  259  ; 
editor  of  Fort.  Rev.,  ii.  312  sq.,  370  ; 
opposition  to  militancy,  ii.  330,  376. 

Morlev,  Samuel,  M.P.,  interested  in 
S.'s  poHtical  views,  i.  368,  423,  444. 

Morning  Chronicle,  i.  219. 

Morning  Herald,  quoted,  ii.  498,  500. 

Morning  Post,  views  on  American  Civil 
War  quoted,  ii.  498,  500. 

Morning  Star,  quoted,  ii.  498,  500. 

Morphia  :  S.'s  use  of,  ii.  93,  198,  454  ; 
effect  on  dreams,  ii.  174  sqq. 

Mozley  family,  i.  65. 

Mozley,  Anne,  i.  65. 

Mozley,  Rev.  Arthiir,  i.  49. 

Mozley,  Cajion  James,  i.  65. 

Mozley,  Rev.  Thomas  :  reminiscences 
of  S.'s  uncle  and  father  criticized, 
i.  26  sqq.,  44  sqq.  ;  misstatements 
concerning  origin  of  Synthetic  Philo- 
sophy, i.  549  sqq. 

Mudie's  Library,  i.  304,  351. 

Murray,  Mr.,  science  lecturer,  i.  86, 
150. 

JIusic  :  S.  solaced  by  "  Those  Evening 
Bells,"  i.  94 ;  grandeur  of  sacred,  i. 
151,  cf.  431  ;  neglect  of  glee-singing, 
i.  197  :  operatic,  i.  274,  ii.  444  ; 
S.'s  essay  on  its  origin  and  function, 
i.  507  sq.  ;  orchestral,  ii.  41  ;  exalta- 
tion of  feeling  produced,  ii.  69 ; 
Darwin's  theory,  ii.  238  sq.  ;  Wagner 
criticized,  ii.  297  sqq. 

Mussy,  Dr.  de,  remedy  for  insomnia, 
u.  92. 


Names,  repetition  in  families,  i.  64. 
Napier,  Col.  [Gen.  Sir  W.  F.  P.],  i.  100. 
Nasmyth,  Mr.  James  :    trial  of  engine 
made  by,  i.  180 ;   visit  to  his  works, 
ib. 
National  Review,  contribution  to,  i.  503. 
National  Temperance  Chronicle  :  edited 
by  Rev.  Thos.  Spencer,  i.  31  ;    S.'s 
obituary  notice  of  him,  i.  37. 
Natural  history,  liking  of  children  for, 

i.  71. 

Natural  selection  :    not  recognized  by 

S. ,    in   his   early   writings,    i.    502  ; 

promulgation    of    theory,     ii.     27  ; 

absorbed  into  theory  of  evolution, 

ii.  99  sq. 

Nature  :    a  strict  accountant,  i.  404  ; 

artificial  forms  simulated,  ii.  160  sq. 

Nature,  controversy  on  physical  axioms 

ii.  258. 
Nebular  Hypothesis,  ii.  15  ;   essay  on, 

ii.  21  sq.,  438. 
Negation,     S.'s     doctrine     of    incon- 
ceivability, i.  418,  472. 
New  York,  its  grandeur,  ii.  388. 
New  Zealand,  comparative  advantages 

of  Ufe  in,  i.  370. 
Newman,  Prof.  Francis  W. :   meeting 
with,  i.  347  ;    gentle  manner,  i.  348. 
^  Cf.  i.  555,  ii.  484. 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  works  studied  by 

S.,  i.  110. 
Niagara,  S.'s  impressions  of,  ii.  394  sqq. 
Nightingales  of  Lea  Hurst,  i.  18,  375. 
Nonconformist,  The  (newspaper) :   S.'s 
contributions   to,   i.   206,   207,   225, 
313;       letters     on     "The     Proper 
Sphere  of  Government,"  i.  208  sqq.  ; 
Miall's    articles   on    suffrage    exten- 
sion, i.  217  sq.  ;  founded  to  advocate 
disestablishment,    i.    2.'}7  ;     rehgious 
liberality  exemplified,  ii.  246  sq. 
Nonconformists,  lukewarm  opposition 

to  mihtancy,  ii.  377. 

Nonconformity  :   a  trait  of  S.'s  family, 

i.  6  sqq.,  11  sq.,  23,  39,  41,  ii.  162; 

associated  with  asceticism,  ii.  429  sq. 

North,  Jliss  [Marianne],  meeting  with, 

ii.  355. 
North  British  Review,  contributions  to, 

i.  415,  438. 
North  Midland  Railway,  i.  140. 
Nottingham :      S.'s     recollections     of 
childhood  at  Forest  Side,  i.  67  ;  lace 
manufacture,   i.   68  ;    opposition  to 


528 


INDEX. 


railways,  i.  283  ;    nervous  disorders 
of  lace-menders,  ii.  174. 

Oil  lamps  in  Grosvenor  Square,  1837, 
i.  132. 

Oken,  Lorenz,  his  Cosmogony,  ii.  489. 

Old  Masters,  see  Art. 

Oldswinford,  home  of  S.'s  ancestors, 
i.  5. 

Open  Court,  ii.  373. 

Opera,  S.'s  views  on,  i.  274,  344. 

Opium,  «ee  Morphia. 

Orchardson,  W.  Q.,  R.A.,  adjustment 
of  contrasts  in  his  pictures,  i.  234. 

Ordish,  Edward,  of  Ingleby,  i.  72  sq. 

"  Origin  and  Function  of  Music,"  ii. 
239. 

"  Origin  of  Animal  Worship,"  ii.  216. 

Osborne,  Col.,  a  promoter  of  Anti- 
Aggression  League,  ii.  376. 

"  Over-legislation,"  i.  444,  ii.  8. 

Owen,  Sir  Richard  :  i.  194  ;  S.  attends 
lectures  by,  i.  368,  462  ;  experience 
of  pubUshing,  i.  393 ;  theory  of 
vertebrate  skeleton  criticized  by  S., 
ii.  24  sq.,  438. 

Oxenford,  John,  meeting  with,  i.  347. 

Oxford  movement,  its  aim  to  re- 
establish authority,  i.  49. 

Oxford  University :  study  of  S.'s 
books,  ii.  208 ;  attitude  towards 
evolution,  ii.  216. 

Oxygen,  distribution  in  earth's  his- 
tory, i.  535  aq. 


Paget,  Sir  James,  meeting  with,  ii. 

218. 
Palaeontology,  S.'s  paper  on  reciprocal 

dependence  of  animals  and   plants 

as  bearing  on,  i.  246,  533  sqq. 
Paley,     Rev.      William,     his     faulty 

argumentation,  i.  265. 
Poll  Mall  Gazette,  i.  255  n. 
Paris  :  S.'s  visits  to,  i.  457,  492,  ii.  311  ; 

pubUc  dinner,  ii.  311  sq. 
Parkes,    Miss    Bessie    [Mme.    Belloc], 

meeting  with,  i.  347. 
Parhament :     private    bill    procedure, 

i.    272    sq.,    298 ;     S.'s    opinion    on 

standing  for,  ii.  201  sq.  ;    principles 

pooh-poohed,  ii.  373. 
"  Parliamentary  Reform  :  the  Dangers 

and  the  Safeguards,"  ii.  54  sq.,  366. 
Patricroft,  Naamyth's  works  at,  i.  180. 


Paulhan,  Fr.,  review  of  "  Progress, 
&c.,"  ii.  310. 

Pembroke,  Earl  of,  visit  to,  ef.  ii.  324. 

Perspective,  as  taught  by  S.'s  father, 
i.  107. 

Pestalozzi,  J.  H. :  likeness  of  S.'s 
grandfather  to,  i.  17  ;  Dr.  Helden- 
maier's  school,  i.  322  sq. 

Pewsey,  Wilts.,  ii.  453. 

Philanthropist,  The,  i.  239. 

Philosophical  Magazine,  contributions 
to,  i.  189,  246,  313,  533,  546  sqq. 

Philosophy  :  identified  with  stoicism, 
i.  366,  ii.  304  (c/.  ii.  229) ;  Lewes's 
History  awakens  S.'s  interest  in, 
i.  378  sq.  ;  positive  analogous  to 
natural,  ii.  110  ;  advice  to  would-be 
devotee,  ii.  455  sqq.  ;  scientific 
conception  of,  ii.  486,  488  sq. 

"  Philosophy  of  Style,"  i.  225,  405,  416, 
ii.  9. 

Phonography,  Pitman's  system  of,  i. 
213  sq. 

Phrenological  Journal,  i.  225,  227. 

Phrenology :  Spurzheim's  lectures,  i. 
200;  S.'s  early  faith  in,  i.  203 
(cf.  297) ;  S.'s  paper  on  Benevolence 
and  Imitation,  i.  225,  227  ;  Amati^e- 
ness  and  Wonder,  i.  246  sq.  ;  appli- 
ance for  measuring  heads,  i.  297, 
540  sqq. 

Phreno-mesraerism,  i.  227. 

Physics :  universality  of  causation, 
ii.  89 ;  truths  underlying  doctrine 
of  evolution,  ii.  168 ;  controversy 
concerning  axioms,  ii.  257  sq. 

"  Physiology  of  Laughter,"  ii.  49. 

Physioscopy,  proposed  art  term,  ii.  193. 

Pichot,  Amedee,  ii.  484. 

Pigott,  E.  S.,  a  friend  of  S.,  i.  481  ; 
yachting  excursion  with  him,  i.  482, 
483  sq.  ;  introduces  S.  to  Victor 
Hugo,  ib.  ;  opinion  of  orchestral 
music,  ii.  41.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

Pilot,  Thf,  Birmingham  newspaper : 
S.'s  sub-editorship,  i.  248,  251  sqq. , 
257,  259  ;  his  contributions,  i.  254  sq. 

Pitman,  [Sir]  Isaac,  system  of  phono- 
graphy, i.  213  sq. 

Pittsburg,  U.S.A.,  S.'s  visit  and 
impressions,  ii.  396  sq. 

Planing  machine,  patented  by  Jackson 
and  S.,  i.  313  sqq.     Cf.  ii.  435. 

Plato,  S.'s  opinion  of,  ii.  442. 

Play,  evolution  of,  i.  412. 


INDEX. 


529 


Pleasure,     its     increasing    pursuit    a 

trait  of  progress,  i.  412  sq.  (cf.  ii. 

429). 

Poetry,  S.'s  views  on,  i.  261  sqq.,  ii.  444. 

Political  Institviions,  ii.  352  sqq.,  373, 

378. 
Pollock,    Sir    Frederick,    co-editor   of 
Reader,  ii.  118  sq. 

Pompeii,  S.'s  visit  to,  ii.  184  sqq. 

Poor  Law  :  reform  advocated  by  S.'s 
uncles,  i.  23,  29,  33;  T.  Spencer's 
administration  at  Hinton,  i.  104 ; 
S.'s  contribution  to  Bath  Magazine, 
i.  112  ;  letters  to  the  Nonconformist, 
i.  209. 

Popular  Science  Monthly,  founded  by 
Youmans,  ii.  244  sq.,  354. 

Positive  philosophy,  wrongly  identified 
with  Comte's  system,  ii.  110. 

Potter,  Beatrice  [Mrs.  Sidney  Webb], 
ii.  412. 

Potter,  Richard :  S.'s  friendsliip, 
i.  260  sq.,  277  ;  traits,  i.  260 ;  pro- 
posed tour  in  U.S.,  i.  294  ;  on  S.'s 
scheme  of  aerial  locomotion,  i.  303  ; 
S.'s  visits,  i.  311,  321,  427  sq.,  480, 
ii.  61,  99,  217,  303,  311,  321,  328, 
S79,  412,  447  ;  praises  New  Zealand, 
i.  322  ;  connexion  with  Great  Eastern 
steamship,  i.  328  ;  proposes  cure  for 
S.'s  rationahsm,  i.  478  ;  S.  interests 
his  children  in  natural  history,  ii.  42. 

Potter,  Mrs.  Richard  {nee  Heyworth)  : 
S.'s  characterization,  i.  260 ;  long 
discussions  with  S.,  i.  311  ;  S.'s 
letter  on  cultivation  of  affections, 
i.  478  sq.  ;  gives  him  a  haunted 
room,  i.  480  ;   her  death,  ii.  379. 

Potter,  Miss  [sister  of  Richard  P.],  ii. 
444. 

Potter,  Theresa,  ii.  355.  See  also 
Cripps,  and  Holt. 

Powell,  Major  J.  W.,  meeting  with, 
ii.  398. 

Preface,  by  S.,  i.  vii-viii. 

Presentiments,  S.  never  found  one 
verified,  i.  491. 

Priaulx,  Osmond  de  Beauvoir  :  meet- 
ings with,  ii.  91  ;  sumptuous  dinners, 
ih.      Cf.  ii.  484. 

Prichard,  W.  B.,  railway  engineer,  i. 
236  sq.,  i.  281,  284  sq.,  290  sqq.,  298. 

Priestley,  Dr.,  visit  to,  ii.  411. 

Principles  of  Biology,  ii.  15,  87,  102, 
113,  129  sqq.  ;    Huxley  and  Hooker 


criticize  proofs,  ii.  103  {cf.  475  sqq.)  ; 
not  sent  out  for  review,  ii.  130. 

Principles  of  Ethics,  original  pro- 
gramme, ii.  16,  87  ;  Data  of  Ethics, 
ii.  314. 

Principles  of  Psychology  (1855) :  in- 
ception and  execution,  i.  212,  391  sq., 
445,  456,  460  sq.  ;  origin  of  some 
ideas  in,  i.  446 ;  leading  doctrines, 
i.  469  sqq.  ;  sale,  i.  482,  504 ; 
anthropocentric  view  predominates, 
i.  500 ;  evolutionary  ideas,  i.  552, 
ii.  10  sq.,  13. 

Principles  of  Psychology  (1867-70),  ii. 
16,  87,  170,  199,  220,  223  sq.  ;  first 
vol.  not  sent  for  review,  ii.  221 ; 
Tyndall's  reference  at  Belfast,  ii. 
283  ;  criticisms  necessitate  an  addi- 
tion on  "  Congruities,"  ii.  362. 

Principles  of  Sociology  :  ii.  16,  52,  273 
sqq.,  276  sq.,  299,  312  ;  "  Domestic 
Institutions "  an  after-thought,  ii. 
289  ;   S.'s  desire  to  complete,  ii.  450. 

Printers,  unpunctuality,  ii.  330. 

Printing,  see  Typography. 

"  Prison  Ethics,"  ii.  48,  49. 

Proctor,  R.  A.,  on  nebulae,  ii.  22. 

"  Progress  :  its  Law  and  Cause  "  : 
i.  462,  499  sqq.  ;  germ  of  SjTithetic 
Philosophy,  ii.  11,  167;  Paulhan's 
review  ii.  310  ;  contams  rudiments 
of  a  cosmogony,  ii.  489. 

"  Proper  Sphere  of  Government,  The  ": 
S.'s  letters  to  the  Nonconformist  on, 
i.  207  sqq.,  229  sq.,  255,  273,  305, 
330,  551  ;  evolutionary  ideas,  ii.  7  ; 
analytic  method  exemplified,  ii.  432  ; 
motive  in  writing,  ii.  449. 

Propitiation,  exemplified  by  a  retriever, 
ii.  236. 

Psychology  :  Kant's  doctrine  of  Time 
and  Space  rejected,  i.  252  sq.  ;  oricia 
of  S.'s  interest  in,  i.  378  sq.  ;  double 
consciousness,  i.  39G ;  a  natural 
history,  ii.  107. 

Public  Schools,  qualities  of  masters  in, 
i.  120. 

Publisliing,  S.'s  experiences  of,  i.  356, 
ii.  70,  403. 

Pyne,  J.  B.,  artist,  i.  232. 

Quakers,  S.'s  early  connexion  with,  i. 
85. 

Qvxirterly  Review  :  Mozley's  reminis- 
cences,  i.   549  ;    rejected  essays,  ii. 

u 


530 


INDEX. 


19  «g.,  30  ;  review  of  First  Principles, 
ii.  257. 
Quom  School,  i.  25. 

Racquets,  recommended  to  S.  as 
agreeable  diversion,  ii.  66  sq. 

Radcliffe,  Mrs.,  novels  devoured  by  S., 
in  boyhood,  i.  77. 

Radicalism  :  S.'s  uncle  wears  the  white 
hat  of,  i.  23  ;  S.'s  early  leanings  to, 
i.  203. 

"  Railway  Morals  and  Railway  Policy," 
essay  on,  i.  444,  445,  450  sqq. 

Railways :  speed  and  rolling  stock  in 
1837,  i.  129  sq ;  S.'s  reminiscences 
of  London  and  Birmingham  Railway, 
ib.  sqq. ;  Birmingham  and  Gloucester 
Railway,  i.  140  sqq.  ;  evolution 
of  great  systems,  i.  140,  cf.  269;  engine 
trials  on  Lickey  incline,  i.  165, 179  sq. ; 
contract  and  day  labour,  i.  172 ; 
mania  schemes,  i.  283  sqq.,  288,  290 
sqq.,  298,  325  sq.  ;  Brunei's  achieve- 
ments criticized,  i.  327  sq. ;  Midland 
Railway  starts  Saturday  afternoon 
excursions,  i.  332  ;  S.'s  disclosures  of 
corrupt  practices,  i.  450  sq. 

Ransom,  Dr.  W  H. :  consulted  by  S., 
i.,  475  {cf.  481,  497,  499,  ii.  173)  ; 
meeting  with,  ii.  143. 

Raphael,  criticism  of,  i.  351,  ii.  228. 

Rathbone,  William,  M.P.,  ii.  330. 

Header  newspaper,  ii.  118  sqq. 

Reason :  unqualified  supremacy,  the 
superstition  of  philosophers,  i.  253  ; 
little  effect  on  conduct,  ii.  366.  See 
also  Intellect. 

"  Reasons  for  Dissenting  from  the 
Philosophy  of  M.  Comte,"  ii.  110  sq., 
cf.  485  sqq. 

Reay,  Lord,  meeting  with,  ii.  355. 

Reay,  Lady  (formerly  Mrs.  Mitchell), 
visits  to.  ii.  292  (c/."'329). 

"  Recent  Astronomy  and  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis,"  ii.  21  sq. 

Reeve,  Henry  (Edinburgh  Rev.),  meet- 
ing with,  ii.  279. 

Religion  :  Mr.  Mozley's  conception,  i. 
46  ;  immortality,  i.  58,  ii.  357,  379  ; 
S.'s  views,  i.  150  sqq..  346  (cf.  i.  158, 
ii.  6,  466  sqq. ) ;  Paley  and  Strauss 
compared,  i.  265  sq.  ;  S.'s  views  lead 
to  rupture  of  friendship,  i.  275  sq.  ; 
views  in  Social  Statics,  i.  360 ; 
ghost-theory,  i.  443  ;   authority  and 


tradition,   ii.   85 ;    liberalization  in 

England,   ii.   246   sq.  ;    rewards   of 

virtue  and  vice,  ii.  380  sq. 
Rembrandt,  "  Lesson    in  Anatomy  " 

criticized,  ii.  379. 
Remusat,  C.  de,  ii.  484. 
Renan,  Ernest,  letter  to  S.  referred  to, 

ii.  126. 
Renimciation,  Goethe's  doctrine  of,  i. 

279. 
"  Replies  to  Criticisms,"  ii.  257. 
"  Representative      Government,"      i. 

510  sq. 
Reviewers  :   methods  criticized,  i.  364, 

ii.  75  sq.,  105,  373  ;  S.  withholds  his 

works,  ii.   131,  221  {cf.  300)  ;  what 

comes  of  ignoring,  ii.  457. 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  ii.  489. 
Rhythm :      illustrated    in    vogue    of 

artists,  i.  235  ;    imiversality  of,  ii. 

19 ;     displayed   in    poUtical   move- 
ments, ii.  367,  369. 
Ribot,    Prof.    Th.,    letter    on    French 

official  recognition  of  S.'s  works,  ii. 

326. 
Ritchie,  IVIrs.  R.  Thackeray,  meeting 

with,  ii.  228. 
Riviera,  winter  amenities,  ii.  320  tq. 

(cf.  322). 
Roe,  Emily,  i.  267. 
Roebuck  [J.  A.],  ii.  40. 
Rogers,  H.  D.,  ii.  484. 
Rolleston,  Prof.  George,  meeting  with, 

i.  456. 
Rome,  S.'s  impressions  of,  ii.  187  sqq. 
Roupell,  C,  meeting  with,  ii.  355. 
Royal    Society,    affairs    discussed    by 

XClub,  ii.  116. 
Rumball,  J.  Q.,  phrenological  charac- 
terization of  S.,  i.  200  sq. 
Ruskin,  John,  S.'s  opinion  of  Stones  of 

Venice,  i.  351. 
Russell,  Lord    Arthur,    meeting   with, 

ii.  279,  355. 
Russia  :    translations  of  S.'s  works,  ii. 

126, 288,  308  ;  translatorprosecuted, 

ii.  157  ;    enthusiasm  of  students,  ii. 

308. 

Sachs,  Julius  von,   on    circulation   in 

plants,  ii.  128. 
St.    Andrew's  University :    S.  declines 

Rectorship  and  degree,  ii.  232  sq. 
St.  Malo,  i.  4,58. 
Salisbury,  Marquis  of,  ii.  459. 


INDEX. 


531 


Sand,  George,  Carlyle's  opinions,  i.  382. 
Sanitary   administration :    S.'s    views 

in  letters  on  "  The  Proper  Sphere  of 

Government,"  i.  209. 
Saturday  afternoon  holiday :   rare  in 

1839,     i.     145 ;    railway    excursion 

introduced  by  Midland  Railway,  i. 

332. 
Saturday  Revieiv,   ii.    254 ;     views  on 

American  Civil  War  quoted,  ii.  499. 
Savages  :    callousness,  i.  79  ;    rigidity 

of    custom,    i.    440    sq.  ;     lack    of 

curiosity,  i.  477. 
Sayce,  Prof.  A.  H.,  meeting  with,  ii.  340. 
Scaife,     Mr.,     of     Birmingham     and 

Gloucester  Railway,  i.  169. 
Scale  of  Equivalents,  appliance  devised 

by  S.,  i.  166,  525  sqq. 
Scheppig,    Dr.    Richard,    compiler   of 

Descriptive   Sociology,   ii.   266,   270, 

349  sq. 

hliemann.    Dr.    Heinrich,    meeting 

with,  ii.  297. 
Science  :    popular  conception,  i.  447  ; 

position    in    education,    ii.    36    sq.  ; 

classification,  ii.  106  sqq.,  168  ;  Mill's 

attitude,  ii.  156;  the  true   man   of, 

rejects   doubtful    evidence,   ii.   220 

(c/.  ii.  469). 
Scotland  :     scenery,    i.    430,    ii.    67, 

214,  290  ;    curious  geological  forma- 
tions, ii.   80  ;    story  of  hotel  exor- 
cism, ii.  371. 
Sculpture,  defective  rendering  of  hair 

in  ancient,  i.  206. 
Secchi,  Father  Niccolo,  meeting  with, 

ii.  187. 
Secrets,  difficulty  of  keeping,  ii.  38. 
Sections,  S.'s  apphance  for  plotting,  i. 

287,  538. 
Self-esteem :      striking     example,     ii. 

250  sq. 
Self-sacrifice,   excess   brings  suffering, 

ii.  93. 
Sellar,  Prof.  [W.  Y.],  ii.  45,  68. 
Senility,  conservatism  of.  ii.  463. 
Sensations :     not  to   be   disobeyed,  i. 

186  ;     trustworthy    guides,    ii.    20 ; 

not  identical  with  emotions,  ii.  21  n. 
Shakespeares  of  Stourbridge,  ii.  161. 
Shakespeare,  W.,  droll  remark  of  S.'s 

hostess,  ii.  87. 
Shares  :  speculation  in,  during  railway  | 

mania,  i.  283  sq.,  288  sq.  ;    should 

traffic  bo  restricted  by  law  7  i.  289.     1 


Sharpey,  Prof.,  ii.  484. 

Shelley,  P.  B.,  poetry  admired  by  S., 
i.  260  sq.,  269,  295. 

Shickle,  Miss  Emma,  S.'s  hostess,  ii. 
146. 

Shooting,  pleasures  of,  ii.  229. 

Shorthand  :  W.  G.  Spencer's  system, 
i.  54,  213  sq.,  240  sq.,  296  sq.  ; 
Pitman's  system,  i.  213  ;  advan- 
tages in  dictation,  ii.  293. 

Sidgwick,  Prof.  Henry,  a  critic  of  S., 
ii.  257,  363. 

Siemens  [Sir  C,  W.],  meeting  with,  ii. 
355. 

Sieveking,  Dr.  [Sir]  E.  H.,  ii.  46,  484. 

Silchester  ruins,  ii.  279. 

Silsbee,  E.  A.,  American  friend  of  S., 
ii.  53,  84,  97,  157. 

Simeon,  Rev.  Chas.,  evangelical  leader, 
i.  26,  28,  101. 

Simon,  Jules,  ii.  484. 

Singing,  Wilhelm's  system,  i.  196. 

Sivori,  violinist,  ii.  41. 

Skew  arches,  S.'s  letter  on,  i.  517  sq. 

"  Sleepy  Hollow,"  an  ideal  burial 
place,  ii.  405. 

Sligo,  Ijord  and  Lady,  meeting  with, 
ii.  355. 

Smalley,  G.  W.,  meeting  with,  ii.  355. 

Smith,  Adam,  Theory  of  Moral  Senti- 
ments, ii.  229,  378. 

Smith,  Benj.  Leigh,  i.  375. 

Smith,  Prof.  Goldwin :  meeting  with, 
ii.  305  ;  sympathy  and  controversy 
with  S.,  ii.  306.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

Smith,  Miss  Leigh,  i.  347. 

Smith,  Octavius  H.  :  S.'s  political 
views  lead  to  friendship,  i.  375  ;  S. 
commences  a  long  series  of  visits, 
i.  490  ;  genial  character,  ib.  ;  S.'s 
appreciation  of  friendship,  i.  504  ; 
supporter  of  rationaUstic  press,  ii. 
33  ;  co-proprietor  of  Reader,  ii.  119  ; 
political  supporter  of  Mill,  ii.  124  ; 
death,  ii.  229  sq.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

Smith,  Mrs.  Octavius,  good  nature,  i. 
490. 

Smith,  Valentine  (son  of  Octavius 
Smith),  wreck  of  his  yacht,  ii.  307. 
Cf.  328,  372  ;  kindness  to  S.,  ii.  410. 

Smith,  William,  M.P.  (father  of 
Octavius  Smith),  i.  374. 

Smith  &  Elder,  i.  462  sq. 

Soar,  EHzabeth,  S.'s  great-grand- 
mother, i.  10. 

34* 


532 


INDEX. 


Socialism,  furthered  by  franchise  ex- 
tensions, i.  221,  ii.  56  (c/.  431). 

"  Social  Organism,"  ii.  48. 

Social  Statics,  &c.  :  origin  in  letters 
on  "  Proper  Sphere  of  Government," 
i.  212,  306,  ii.  432;  views  on 
sentiment  of  justice,  i.  229  (c/.  ii. 
16,  273) ;  alleged  influence  of  Comte, 
i.  255  ».,  359,  ii.  487  ;  writing  and 
revision,  i.  304  sq.,  314,  319,  331, 
353  sqq.  ;  induction  and  deduction 
exhibited,  i.  305 ;  publishing  diffi- 
culties, i.  356  sq.,  ii.  455  ;  choice  of 
title,  i.  358  sq.  ;  imaginary  review, 
i.  360  sqq.,  ii.  74  ;  reception,  i.  364, 
367,  409;  social  results,  i.  365; 
further  revision  for  second  edition, 
i.  367  ;  evolutionary  views,  i.  384, 
551  n.,  652,  ii.  166 ;  analysis  and 
synthesis,  i.  416,  ii.  432 ;  positive 
theism  implied,  ii.  7  ;  naturalism, 
ib.  ;  style,  ii.  36  ;  opinions  after- 
wards qualified,  ii.  365  sq.  ;  was  to 
have  been  anonymous,  ii.  449 ; 
Henry  George  and  the  land  question, 
ii.  459  sq.  ;  von  Baer's  law  antici- 
pated, ii.  488. 

Society,  S.'s  reasons  for  restricting 
intercourse,  ii.  228  (c/.  280). 

Sociology :  S.'s  early  views,  i.  209, 
210  sq.,  255,  ii.  9  ;  alleged  use  of 
word  in  S.'s  PUot  articles,  i.  255  v.  ; 
doctrine  of  social  organism,  i.  364, 
504,  511,  ii.  8,  433  sq.,  465,  487  ; 
growth  of  personal  liberty,  i.  440  sq.  ; 
survival  of  fittest,  ii.  5,  7  ;  rhythm, 
ii.  19  ;  a  natural  history,  ii.  107  ; 
division  of  labour,  ii.  166  ;  differ- 
entiation of  control,  ib.  ;  compared 
with  history,  ii.  185,  253,  265 ; 
evolution  of  habitations,  ii.  185  sq.  ; 
domestic  institutions,  ii.  289  ;  inter- 
action of  units  and  aggregate,  ii. 
465  sq.  ;  Comte's  conception,  ii. 
485  sqq. 

Somerset  House,  river  promenade,  i. 
399. 

South  Wales  Railway  Company,  i.  34, 
325  sq. 

South  Western  Railway,  i.  450. 

Southampton  graving  docks,  i.  236. 

Space,  origin  of  intuition,  ii.  89. 

Speaker,  The,  i.  167  n. 

"  Specialized  Administration,"  ii 
232. 


Species  :  S.'s  early  views,  i.  176, 387  sq., 
389  sq.,  501  sq.  ;  Darwin's  doctrine 
confounded  with  evolution,  i.  552. 

Spectator  :  review  of  First  Principles, 
ii.  75  ;  views  on  American  Civil  War 
quoted,  ii.  499  sq. 

Spencer  family  :  genealogy,  i.  8  sqq. ; 
location  in  Derbyshire,  i.  9  sqq.  ; 
characteristics,  i.  10  sqq.,  39  sqq., 
208,  346,  ii.  280,  430. 

Spencer,  Anthony,  of  Kirk  Ireton, 
i.  9,  10. 

Spencer,  Catherine  {nee  Taylor) ;  S.'s 
grandmother,  i.  11,  19  sqq.,  198; 
knew  John  Wesley,  i.  19. 

Spencer,  Henry,  S.'s  uncle,  i.  22  sqq., 
39  sqq.,  94. 

Spencer,  Herbert  : 

I.  Ancestry ;  II.  Career  ; 
III.  Characteristics  ;  IV.  Opinions  ; 
V.  Inventions,  devices,  S(c.  ;  VI.  Re- 
creations ;  VII.  Writings  :  (a)  Essays 
and  minor  publications  ;  (b)  System 
of  Synthetic  Philosophy ;  (c)  Auto- 
biography ;  (d)  Descriptive  Soci- 
ology ;  (e)  Education ;  (/)  Essays 
[collected]  ;  {g)  Man  versus  the 
State  ;  (A)  Social  Statics  ;  (i)  Study 
of  Sociology  ;  (/)  American  reprints, 
&c.  ;   {k)  Translations. 

I.  Ancestry  : 

Remote,  i.  3  sqq.  ;  characteristics, 
i.  6  sqq.,  10  sq.  ;  foreign  derivation, 
i.  6 ;  Grandparents,  i.  14  sqq.  ; 
Parents  :  father  (i^.  post,  Spencer, 
W.  G.) ;  mother  (v.  post,  Spencer, 
Mrs.  W.  G.). 

II.  Career : 

Childhood  :  birth,  i.  63 ;  baptism, 
ib.  ;  earliest  recollections,  i.  64  sqq. ; 
backwardness,  i.  66,  67  sq. 

Boyhood  and  youth  :  i.  70  sqq.  ; 
narrow  escape  from  drowning,  i. 
13  sq.  ;  maternal  vigilance  eluded, 
i.  77  ;  parental  discipline,  i.  82  ; 
father's  ideal,  to  be  useful  member 
of  society,  i.  82  (c/.  ii.  139) ; 
Methodist  and  Quaker  meetings, 
i.  83  ;  education  at  Derby,  i.  84, 
87  sqq.  ;  at  Hinton  Charterhouse, 
i.  93,  99  sqq.  ;  flight  from  Hinton, 
i.  94  ;  visit  to  Charles  Fox,  i.  105  ; 
first  journalistic  contributions,  i. 
Ill;  life  at  Hinton  reviewed,  i. 
115  sq.  ;    not  a  "good"  boy,  i. 


INDEX. 


533 


1 17 ;   three  months  as  teacher,  i. 

Engineering,  first  stage :  London 
and  Birmingham  Railway,  mider 
Charles  Fox,  i.  125,  129  sqq.  ; 
Greenwich  Railway,  i.  139  :  Bir- 
mingham and  Gloucester  Railway, 
Worcester,  i.  140  sqq.  ;  Powick, 
engineering  secretary,  i.  155  sqq.  ; 
flirtation,  i.  167  sqq.  \cf.  178) ;  post 
in  loco,  department  declined,  i. 
183  ;  clouded  relations  with  chief, 
i.  183  sqq. 

Life  at  home :  mathematical  studies, 
i.  189 ;  tummg  point  in  career,  i. 
190 ;  first  sight  of  sea,  i.  193 ; 
scheme  for  flood  prevention, 
Derby,  i.  203. 

Journalism  and  politics  :  letters  to 
Nonconformist,  i.  207  sqq.,  229  sq.  ; 
Complete  Sufi^rage  movement,  i. 
218  sqq.  ;  conference  with  Char- 
tists, i.  219 ;  friends'  views  of 
political  leanings,  1.  221  sqq.  ;  per- 
sonal advancement  never  thought 
of,  i.  223  ;  journalism  in  London, 
i.  225  sqq.  ;  reads  Bentham,  i. 
226 ;  Carlyle  and  Emerson,  i. 
241  ;  sub-editorship  of  Pilot,  i. 
248,  251  sqq.  ;  visit  to  Joseph 
Sturge,  i.  251  (c/.  259)  ;  reads 
Kant,  i.  252. 

Engineering,  second  stage  (c/.  i. 
236)  :  Birmingham  and  Gloucester 
extension,  i.  257  sqq.  ;  lifelong 
friendships  commenced,  i.  261, 
277  ;  a  friendship  severed  on 
religious  grounds,  i.  275  sq.  ;  with 
Fox,  Henderson,  &  Co.,  i.  277, 
281  ;  assistant  to  W.  B.  Prichard, 
i.  285  sqq. ;  interested  in  "  develop- 
ment theory,"  i.  295 ;  engineer- 
ing abandoned,  i.  298. 

Journalism  and  authorship  :  Social 
Statics  projected,  i.  304  sq.,  314, 
319  ;  studies  style,  i.  314  sq.  ; 
electioneering  at  Derby,  i.  315, 
321  ;  futile  Hfe  at  hom'e,  i.  321  ; 
thoughts  of  emigration,  i.  322 
(c/.  370) ;  scheme  for  Pestalozzian 
school,  i.  323  sq.  ;  encounter  with 
Brunei,  i.  327  ;  Standard  of  Free- 
dom, i.  331  (cf.  329) ;  sub-editor- 
ship of  Economist  {cf.  i.  329  sq.), 
i.   332   sqq.  ;    previous  career  re- 


viewed, i.  335  ;  Whittington  Club, 
i.  342  ;  agnostic  attitude  declared, 
i.  346  ;  Chapman's  soirees,  i.  347  ; 
reads  Coleridge's  Idea  of  Life,  i. 
351  ;  Social  Statics  published,  i. 
354  sqq.  ;  social  results,  i.  365, 
375  ;  matrimonial  scheme,  i.  365 
(cf.  369) ;  pessimism,  i.  367  ; 
attends  Owen's  lectures,  i.  368 
(cf.  462) ;  serious  thoughts  of 
emigrating,  i.  370  (cf.  322) ;  friend- 
ship with  O.  H.  Smith,  i.  375; 
G.  H.  Lewes,  i.  376 ;  interest  in 
philosophy  aroused,  i.  378,  392  ; 
meets  Carlyle,  i.  379  ;  begins 
writing  for  Westminster  Rev.,  i. 
384 ;  von  Baer's  formula,  ib.  ; 
Leader,  i.  385  ;  authors  and  book- 
sellers at  war,  i.  392  ;  acquaint- 
ance with  George  Eliot,  i.  394  sqq. ; 
Huxley,  i.  402 ;  Leigh  Hunt,  i. 
407  ;  legacy  from  imcle  Thomas, 
i.  415 ;  sub-editorship  resigned, 
ib.,  423  ;  introduced  to  quarterly 
re\iews,  i.  415;  acquaintance  with 
Tyndall,  i.  418 ;  Swiss  tour,  i. 
428  ;  cardiac  trouble,  i.  432,  448  ; 
conversion  attempted,  i.  433  ; 
ghost  theory,  i.  443 ;  meeting 
with  namesakes,  i.  454  ;  doctrine 
of  evolution  germinates,  i.  462 ; 
funds  get  low,  i.  463  ;  overwork, 
i.  464  ;  chronic  bad  health  com- 
mences, i.  468 ;  call  on  Victor 
Hugo,  i.  484 ;  Conite,  i.  493  ; 
doctor  condemns  solitary  life,  i. 
497  (cf.  ii.  67);  acquaintance  with 
J.  S.  Jlill,  i.  504  ;  mental  develop- 
ment reviewed,  ii.  5  sqq. 
System  of  Philosophy  :  projected,  ii. 
14 ;  universality  of  rhythm,  ii, 
19 ;  seeks  official  post,  ii.  23, 
39  sq.,  44  (cf.  51)  ;  schemes  for 
launching  philosophy,  ii.  31  sq.  ; 
employs  amanuensis,  ii.  35 ; 
Origin  of  Species,  ii.  50  (cf.  100) ; 
programme  of  philosophy  printed, 
ii.  51,  479  sqq.  (list  of  first  sub- 
scribers, ii.  484) ;  help  from 
America,  ii.  53  ;  expectations  of 
achievement,  ii.  56 ;  philosophy 
commenced,  ii.  61  ;  first  number, 
ii.  63  ;  an  opportune  legacy,  ii. 
64 ;  subscribers  default,  ii.  65, 
70  (cf.   132)  ;    new  publishers,  ii. 


534 


INDEX. 


70 ;  acquaintance  with  Busk,  ii. 
71  ;  Lubbock,  ib.  ;  First  Prin- 
ciples published,  ii.  74  ;  insomnia, 
ii.  92;  X  Club  formed,  ii.  115; 
Reader  newspaper,  ii.  118;  first 
and  last  parUamentary  vote,  ii. 
125 ;  botanical  experiments,  ii. 
126  ;  Biology  completed,  ii.  129  ; 
financial  diflBculties,  ii.  132 ;  ces- 
sation decided  on,  ii  133  ;  friends 
come  to  the  rescue,  ib.  sqq.  ; 
father's  death  and  bequest,  ii. 
138  sq.  ;  American  testimonial, 
ii.  140  (c/.  266)  ;  Eyre  case,  ii. 
142 ;  settles  at  Bayswater,  ii.  145  ; 
University  appointments  declined, 
ii.  147  (c/.  232  sqq.);  mother's 
death,  ii.  149  ;  First  Principles  re- 
cast, ii.  154 ;  Synthetic  Philosophy 
named,  ii.  167  ;  pubUshing 
methods,  ii.  163. 
Later  life :  growth  of  evolutionary 
ideas,  ii.  165  sqq.  ;  Descriptive 
Sociology  initiated,  ii.  171  sq. 
(cf.  261  sqq.) ;  morphia,  ii.  174 ; 
election  into  Athenaeum,  ii.  177  ; 
toiu:  in  Italy,  ii.  178  sqq.  ; 
good-bye  to  adversity,  ii.  207 
{cf.  462) ;  life  at  Athenaeum,  ii. 
224 ;  International  Scientific 
Series,  ii.  227  sq.,  230,  232,  242, 
258  ;  social  connexions  restricted, 
ii.  228  ;  University  dignities  de- 
clined, ii.  232  sqq.  ;  relations  with 
Mr.  Gladstone,  ii.  254  sq.,  297  ; 
controversy  with  physicists,  ii. 
257  ;  disestablishment  agitation, 
ii.  259  ;  American  gift  declined, 
ii.  268  ;  career  reviewed,  ii.  273  ; 
Athenaeum  Committee,  ii.  280 ; 
Copyright  Commission,  ii.  296 ; 
Sociology,  Vol.  I  completed,  ii. 
299  ;  serial  issue  dropped,  ii. 
300 ;  public  dinner,  Paris,  ii. 
311  sq.  ;  visit  to  Riviera,  ii.  320 ; 
Data  of  Ethics,  ii.  324 ;  French 
official  recognition,  ii.  326,  347  ; 
Ceremonial  Institutions,  ii.  330 ; 
Nile  tour,  ii.  333  sq.  ;  Venice,  ii. 
343 ;  Des.  Sociology  ceases,  ii. 
351  ;  daily  routine,  ii.  354 ; 
another  American  gift  declined, 
ii.  372 ;  Political  Institutions 
finished,  ii.  373  ;  Anti- Aggression 
League,    ii.    375    sqq.  ;     visit    to 


America,    ii.    387    sqq.  ;     public 

dinner,   ii.   406 ;    invalid  life,   ii. 

411  sqq.,  452  sq. 
III.  Characteristics : 

Absorption  of  mind,  i.  76,  ii.  40,  1 79, 

184,  391. 
Advancement,    material,    disregard 

for,  i.  356,  cf.  ii.  449,  455. 
Ambition,  ii.  449. 
Analogy,  perception  of,  ii.  433  sq. 
Analytic  method,  i.  417,  ii.  223.  432. 
Animals,  kindness   to,  i.   80  {cf.  ii. 

213). 
Architectonic  instinct,  ii.  450,  454. 
Artistic :  drawing,  i.   19,  74  sq.,  85, 

198  sj.,  ii.  114  ;   modelling,  i.  29. 
Asceticism,  cf.  i.  28.     {See  Stoicism.) 
Atmospheric  sensitiveness,  ii.  114. 
Authority,  disregard  of,  i.  1 1  sq.,  79, 

103,   144,  199,   279,  379,  ii.   198, 

438,  441. 
Beauty,    appreciation    of   feminine, 

ii.  445. 
Castle- building,  i.  76, 123, 175,  ii.  435. 
Causality,  i.   89,   152,  211,  417,  ii. 

5  sq.,  431. 
Children,   liking  for,    cf.    i.   498,   ii. 

42,  ii.  447. 
Criticism,  ii.  438,  443. 
Differ,  tendency  to,  i.  332. 
Education,  i.  vii-viii. 
Ear  stoppers,  ii.  452. 
Excursiveness,  i.  134,  ii.  435. 
Facetiousness,  cf.  ii.  215. 
Fault-finding,  ii.  430,  438,  443. 
Fearlessness,  moral,  i.  105,  ii.  439. 
Fiction,  taste  for,  i.  146,  174. 
Filial  obligation,  cf.   i.   60,  ii.   149; 

affection,  ii.  99  (cf.  i.  60,  ii.  149). 
Idleness,  i.  105,  109  sq.,  296. 
Impatience,  ii.  430. 
Independence,  i.  133. 
Induction,  i.  305,  ii.  127,  431. 
Inherited  traits,  i.  6,  8,  11  sq.,  ii.  162, 

426  sqq. 
Insomnia,  i.  480,  494,  ii.  451. 
Instruction,  i.  vii-viii. 
Insubordination,  i.  79,  81  sq.,  ii.  441. 
Inventiveness,  ii.  435  [v.  list). 
Justice,  sense  of,  i.  184. 
Linguistic  studies,  dislike  of,  i.  85,  88, 

108  s^.,  115,  159. 
Locality,  sense,  i.  1 1 1  {cf.  85). 
Mathematics,  i.  102,  115,  132. 
Memory,  i,  81. 


INDEX. 


535 


Militancy,    opposition    to,    ii,    329, 

375  sqq. 
Monotony,  aversion  from,  i.  331  (c/. 

261). 
Natural  history  of  S.,  i.  vii-viii. 
Nonconformity,  ii.  162  (c/.  i.  6,  11). 
Peaceableness,  i.  79. 
Physique,  i.  78,  ii.  427. 
Sanguine  mood,  i.  474,  ii.  339. 
Secrets  difficult  to  keep,  ii.  38. 
Self-rehance,  i.  103,  112. 
Stoicism,  absent,  i.  366,  ii.  229,  304. 
Sympathy,  i.  80,  ii.  213,  441. 
Synthesis,  ii.  431,  450. 
Thought :   preferred  to  reading  and 

talking,  i.  351,  ii.  397  (c/.  i.  81); 

method  pursued,  i.  399,  ii.  199,  cf. 

449. 
Voice,  cf.  i.  109. 

Wrinkles,  absence  of,  i.  399,  401. 
V.  Opinions:  (see  o/so  Generallndex) 
Agnosticism,  cf.  i.  346. 
Alcohol,  i.  318. 
American    Civil    War,    ii.    210   sqq., 

497  sqq. 
Americans  :  ii.  402  ;  over  devotion 

to  work,  ii.  406  ;   kindness,  ii.  408. 
Art :  i.  204,  206,  232,  ii.  345  ;  Tur- 
ner, i.  233  sqq. ;  Ruskin,  i.  351  ;  old 

masters,  ii.  84,  188  sqq.,  228,  235, 

379,  443  ;  J.  B.  Burgess,  ii.  235  ; 

Venice,    ii.    343  sqq.  ;   pursuit,  ii. 

461. 
Billiards,  ii.  225. 

Biography,  i.  32,  37,  435,  ii.  284,  327. 
Brunei,  I.  K.,  i.  327. 
Carlyle,  T.,  i.    242,    312,  379  sqq.  ; 

renunciation,  i.  279  ;   Cromwell,  i. 

295. 
Cathedral  music,  i.  431,  ii.  218. 
Character  and  institutions,  ii.  366  sq., 

465  ;    bodily  structure,  ii.  417  sqq. 
Christianity,    i.    151,    ii.    382,    458, 

467  sq.    {Sc.e  Religion.) 
Classics,  ii.  36,  156,  442  sq. 
Comte,  A.,  i.  444  sqq.,  461,  ii.  106,  &c. 
Conduct,  i.  324,  355,  ii.  366,  380  sq. 
Conscientiousness,  i.  228. 
Controversy,  futile,  ii.  123,  246. 
Cooperation,  ii.  369. 
Creed,  factors,  i.  20,  177. 
Dante,  style,  i.  262. 
Decimal   and    duodecimal    systems, 

i.  217,  531  sq. 
Dictation,  effect  on  style,  ii.  34,  293. 


Disestablishment,  i.  237,  ii.  259. 
Education,   i.    119,    167,   336,   410, 

478,  ii.  262  sq.,  321,  356,  487. 
Egypt,  ancient  and  modern,  ii.  335, 

341  sq. 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  i.  242,  312. 
Englishmen,   traits,   i.   32  sq.,  394, 

449,  ii.  373,  394. 
Ethics,  i.  143,  ii.  468. 
Examinations,  cf.  i.  336. 
Experience,  ii.  281. 
Fatigue,  ii.  423. 
Fortune,  good  and  bad,  i.  324. 
Freedom,  i.  439. 
Games,  ii.  305. 
Gaskell,  Mrs.,  i.  350. 
Genius,  i.  382. 

George,  Henry,  ii.  369,  459  sq. 
Goethe,  doctrine  of  renunciation,    i. 

279. 
Guide-books,  ii.  79. 
History,  ii.  198,  253,  265,  467. 
Homer,  i.  262. 
Honours,  bestowal  of,  i.  327  {of.  ii. 

232  sq.). 
Household  appliances,  ii.  204  sq. 
Hymns,  i.  151. 
Inventions,  i.  321,  ii.  32. 
Justice :    sentiment   of,    i.  228    sq.  ; 

poetical,  i.  324. 
Language,  universal,  i.  216,  528  sq. 
Literary  profession,  ii.  357,  455. 
Loyalty,  ii.  464. 
Marriage,  i.  267  sq.,  365,  369,  478, 

493,  ii.  457,  462  {cf.  ii.  445). 
Materialism,  ii.  75. 
MiUtancy,  ii.  329,  375,  378. 
Mind  and  body,  ii.  417  sqq. 
Monarchy,  ii.  464  sq. 
Morphia,  ii.  93. 
Music  :    opera,  i.    197,  274,  343  sq., 

ii  444 ;  Wagner,  ii.  297  sq. ;  Berhoz, 

ii.  370;  sacred,  i.  151,  431. 
Old  age,  ii.  463  sq. 
Philosophy,  pursuit  of,  ii.  455. 
Plato,  ii.  442. 
Poetical  justice,  i.  324. 
Poetry,  i.  261  sqq.,  ii.  444. 
Politics,  i.   197,  218  sqq.,  ii.   125,  ii. 

201,  365  sqq.,  373,  464  sq. 
Presentiments,  i.  491. 
Railway  bubble-schemes,  i.  288  sq. 
Reason  :    supremacy,  i.  253  ;    con- 
duct, ii.  366. 
Religion:    i.l50,  259,  265,275,277 


536 


INDEX. 


346 ;    agnostic    attitude,    i.  346 ; 

immortality,   i.   58,   ii.  357,   379, 

467  ;  later  thoughts,  ii.  466. 
Reviewers,  i.  364,  ii.  75,  105,   131, 

221  (c/.  ii.  300,  324,  457). 
Science  v.  Classics,  ii.  36,  156. 
Shorthand,  i.  213  sq.,  ii.  293,  c/.  413. 
Socialism,  ii.  369. 
Specialization,  scientific,  ii.  103  sq. 
Sport,  ii.  229,  305. 
Style,  i.  160,  354,  ii.  35,  200,  451. 
Sympathy,  i.  33,  35,  80. 
Switzerland,  i.  431. 
Thackeray,  W.  M.,  i.  350. 
University  degrees,  ii.  232  aqq. 
UtiHtarianism,  ii.  88  sq. 
Vegetarianism,  i.  349. 
Veneration,  i.  203. 
Venice,  ii.  343  sq. 
Virtue,  doctrine  of  reweirds,  1.  34,  60, 

324,  ii.  380  sq. 
Wealth  and  dishonesty,  ii.  30. 
Women  :    intuitive  faculty,  ii.  86  ; 

beauty,  ii.  419,  444,  445. 
Words,  impediments  to  thought,  ii. 

301. 
Work,  ethics  of,  i.  411  sqq.,  ii.  288, 

400,  406. 
V.  Inventions,  devices,  Sfc.  : 
Aerial  locomotion,  i.  301  sqq. 
Binding   pin,    i.    306   sqq.,    544   sq., 

cf.  ii.  435. 
Bridges,  design  for  cheap  type,  i.  178. 
Cephalograph,  i.  297,  540  sqq. 
Colour  nomenclature,  i.  309. 
Cyclograph,  i.  149. 
Designs,  manufacture  of,  i.  309. 
Electro-magnetic  engine,  i.   181  sq., 

190. 
Fishing-rod  joint,  ii.  214,  504  sq. 
Invalid  bed,  ii.  147,  494,  cf.  ii.  435. 
Levelling    appliances,     i.     287     sq., 

538  aq. 
Locomotives,  appliance  for  measuring 

traction,  i.  165.     See  Velocimeter. 
Mail- bag  apparatus,  i.  150. 
Planing  macliine,  i.  313  sqq.,  cf.  ii. 

435. 
Plotting  sections,  i,  287,  538. 
Printing  press,  i.  244. 
Scale  of  equivalents,  i.  166,  525  sq. 
Smoke  consumption,  i.  493. 
Typography,  i.  195,  215,  244,  319. 
Velocimeter,  i.  165,  522  sg.  {cf.  ii.435). 
Watch  escapements,  i.  243,  cf.  ii.  435. 


VI.  Becreations : 
Backgammon,  ii.  453. 
BilUards,  i.  366,  ii.  225. 
Boating,  i   192,  ii.  66,  201,  217. 
Botany,  i.  191  «g.,  352. 
Cards,  ii.  455  (cf.). 

Chess,  i.  224. 
Fiction,  i.  77. 
Fishing,  i.   72,    485,    506,    ii  203, 

213. 
Geology,  i.  175. 
Golf,  ii.  230. 
Horse  riding,  i.  475,  479. 
Modelling,  i.  74,  85,  205  sq. 
Music,  ii.  41  (cf.  453). 
Natural  history,  i.  71,  74,  92,  ii.  42, 

67,  cf.  453. 
Opera,  i.  395. 
Racquets,  ii.  66,  176,  199. 
Shooting,  ii.  229,  cf.  i.  107. 
Singing,  i.  192,  196  sq.,  395,  ii.  73. 
Skating,  ii.  176. 
Spillikins,  ii.  453. 

VII.  Writings : 

(a)  Essays  and  minor  publications  : 
letters  to  Bath  Magazine,  i.  Ill  ; 
skew  arches,  letter  on,  i.  149 ; 
trussed  beams,  art.  on,  i.  161  ; 
geometrical  theorem,  i.  164,  520  «g.; 
girders,  strength  of,  i.  195 ; 
"  Architectural  Precedent,"  letter, 
i.  200 ;  "  Proper  Sphere  of 
Government,"  i.  207,  sqq.,  229  sq.  ; 
"  A  New  View  of  the  Functions  of 
Imitation  and  Benevolence,"  i. 
225.  227  ;  •'  On  the  Situation  of 
the  Organ  of  Amativeness."  i. 
?46  ;  "  A  Theory  concerning  the 
Organ  of  Wonder,"  i.  246 ; 
"  Remarks  on  the  Theory  of 
Reciprocal  Dependence  in  the 
Animal  and  Vegetable  Creations," 
i.  246,  533  sq.  ;  Pilot,  leading 
articles,  i.  254  ;  "  Justice  before 
Generositv,"  i.  313;  "Form  of 
the  Es^rth,  &c.,"  i.  313,  546  sq.  ; 
"  Tu  Qiwque,"  i.  331  ;  Carpenter's 
Physiology  reVie-wed,  i.  384.  "  Hay- 
thome  Paper.s,"  i.  386,  406  sq.; 
"  Development     Hypothesis,"     i. 

387  ;    "  Theory  of  Population,"  i. 

388  sqq.  ;  "  Gracefulness,"  i.  407  ; 
"  Origin  of  Architectural  Types," 
ib. ;  "  Theory  of  Tears  and  Laugh- 
ter,"   ib.  ;     "  Use    and    Beauty," 


INDEX. 


537 


i.  406  aq. ;  "  Philosophy  of  Style," 
i.  405  (c/.  225) ;  "  Universal 
Postulate,"  i.  416  sq.  ;  "  Over- 
legislation,"  i.  421  sqq.  ;  "  Art 
of  Education,"  i.  438  ;  "  Manners 
and  Fashion,"  i.  442  ;  "  Railway 
Morals  and  Railway  Policy,"  i. 
450  sq.  ;  "  Progress  :  its  Law  and 
Cause,"  i.  499  (c/.  462) ;  "  Trans- 
cendental Physiology,"  i.  503  ; 
"  Origin  and  Function  of  Music," 
i.  507  ;  "  Representative  Govern- 
ment," i.  510  ;  "  State  Tamper- 
ings  with  Money  and  Banks," 
ii.  5  ;  "  Moral  Education,"  ii.  18  ; 
"  Physical  Training,"  ii.  19  ;  "  Re- 
cent Astronomy  and  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis,"  ii.  21  ;  "  Laws  of 
Organic  Form,"  ii.  28  ;  "  Morals 
of  Trade,"  ii.  29 ;  "  Illogical 
Geology,"  ii.  43  sq.  ;  "  Bain  on 
the  Emotions,"  ii.  46 ;  "  The 
Social  Organism,"  ii.  48  ;  "  Prison 
Ethics,"  ii.  49  ;  "  The  Physiology 
of  Laughter,"  ii.  49 ;  "  Parlia- 
mentary Reform :  the  Dangers 
and  the  Safeguards,"  ii.  55  ; 
"  Classification  of  the  Sciences," 
ii.  106  sqq.  ;  "  Reasons  for  dis- 
senting from  the  Philosophy  of 
M.  Comte,"  ii.  110;  "Mill  versus 
Hamilton:  the  Test  of  Truth,"  i. 
121  ;  "  Specialized  Administra- 
tion," ii.  232  ;  "  Mr.  Martineau 
on  Evolution,''  ii.  245  ;  Obituary 
notice  of  J.  S.  Mill,  ii.  249,  506  ; 
"  Replies  to  Criticisms,"  ii.  257  ; 
"  The  Factors  of  Organic  Evolu- 
tion," ii.  410. 

(b)  System  of  Synthetic  Philosophy  : 
First  Principles,  ii.  74,  154 ; 
Principles  of  Biology,  ii.  102,  113  ; 
Principles  of  Psychology,  ii.  220, 
240,  362;  [1st  ed.  (1855)  i.  391, 
455  sqq.,  469  sqq.,  482]  ;  Prin- 
ciples of  Sociology,  Vcl.  I.,  ii. 
276  sqq.,  299,  310;  Ceremonial 
Institutions,  ii.  302  sq.,  325  sq.  ; 
Political  Institutions,  ii.  353  sqq., 
378 ;  Ecclesiastical  Institutions, 
ii.  410 ;  unwritten  parts,  cf.  ii. 
450 ;  Principles  of  Ethics  (Data 
of  Ethics),  ii.  314. 

(c)  Autobiography,  i.  435;  ii.  284, 
413,  476  ;  natural  history  of  him- 


self, i.  vii-viii ;   note  by  Trustees, 
i.  v-vi. 

(d)  Descriptive  Sociology,  ii.  171  sqq., 
261  sqq.,  348  sqq. 

(e)  Education :    InteUecttwl,  Moral, 
and  Physical,  ii.  65. 

(/)    Essays  [collected],  First  Series, 

i.  511,  ii.  4,  second  series,  ii.  98. 
[g)  Man  versus  the  State,  ii.  410. 
(A)  Social  Statics,  i.  304  sq.,  314,  319, 

353  sqq.,  367. 
{i)    Study  of  Sociology,  ii.  242,  252, 

353. 
(/)  American  reprints,  &c.,  ii.  53,  97, 

155,  207,  227,  244  sq.,  354. 
{k)  Translations :  French,  ii.  126, 
207,  227,  320,  326,  370 ;  German, 
ii.  235 ;  Greek,  ii.  356 ;  ItaUan, 
cf.  ii.  278;  Russian,  ii.  126, 
cf.  157,  288,  308. 

Spencer,  Dr.  Herbert,  and  other  name- 
sakes of  S.,  i.  454. 

Spencer,  Jolm,  S.'s  uncle:  i.  24:  sqq.; 
seceded  from  Wesleyanism  and 
founded  "  Derby  faith,"  ib.  ;  emi- 
grated to  America,  ib. 

Spencer,  Louisa,  i.  64. 

Spencer,  Mary  Ann,  S.'s  aunt,  i. 
21  sq. 

Spencer,  Mathew,  S.'s  great-grand- 
father, i.  9. 

Spencer,  Mathew,  S.'s  grandfather: 
i.  9,  17  sqq.,  ii.  437 ;  children,  i.  21  sqq. 

Spencer,  Rev.  Thomas,  last  R.C.  in- 
cumbent of  Hinton  Charterhouse,  i. 
27,  101. 

Spencer,  Rev.  Thomas,  S.'s  uncle : 
i.  24  sqq.,  93  sqq.  ;  Mozley's  reminis- 
cences, i.  26  sqq.  ;  incumbency  of 
Hinton  Charterhouse,  i.  27  sqq., 
320  ;  adherent  of  Simeon,  i.  28  ; 
activities  at  Hinton,  ib. ;  pamph- 
leteer and  lecturer,  i.  29  ;  all- 
round  reformer,  ib.  sq.  ;  con- 
scientiousness, i.  31  n.,  38,  cf.  ii.  458  ; 
S.'s  character  sketch,  i.  32  sqq. 
(cf.  101  sqq.,  116);  parishioners' 
and  brothers'  esteem,  i.  38,  cf. 
320 ;  S.'s  education,  i.  93  sqq.  ; 
S.  models  his  bust,  i.  205  .s^'.  ; 
conference  with  Chartists,  i.  219 ; 
belief  in  self-help,  i.  324  ;  loss  of 
property,  ib.,  i.  345,  433  ;  settles  in 
London,  i.  344  ;  becoines  a  popular 
preacher,    i.    345,    433 ;     discusses 


538 


INDEX. 


grave  questions  with  S.,  i.  346 ; 
death  from  overwork,  i.  413  sqq.  ; 
legacy  to  S.,  ii.  135,  455. 

Spencer,  Mrs.  Thomas  {nee  Anna  Maria 
Brooke),  i.  98,  101,  116,  ii.  357. 

Spencer,  William,  S.'s  imcle  ;  i.  38  sq. ; 
methods  of  teaching,  i.  84  sq.  ; 
obtains  post  for  S.,  i.  125 ;  S.'s 
letters  to,  i.  430,  482  ;  leaves  bulk 
of  his  property  to  S.,  ii.  64,  c/.  135, 
455. 

Spencer,  W.  Antill,  S.'s  cousin,  i.  24. 

Spencer,  William  George,  S.'s  father  : 
Career  :  discouraged  by  father, 
i.  18  ;  financial  success,  i.  23,  66 ; 
supplies  funds  for  brother's  university 
career,  i.  26  ;  head  of  the  house,  i. 
41;  "flower  of  the  flock,"  i.  43; 
teaching  profession,  i.  49  sq.,  65 
sq.,  107,  120  sq.  ;  marriage  op- 
posed, i.  56  (c/.  16) ;  lace-manu- 
facturer, i.  68 ;  resumes  teaching, 
i.  70  sqq.  ;  secedes  from  Methodism, 
and  attends  Quaker  meetings,  i.  83  ; 
secretary  to  Derby  Philosophical 
Society,  i.  87  ;  lenient  view  of  S.'s 
flight  from  Hinton,  i.  99;  S.'s  char- 
acter as  a  boy,  i.  105 ;  old  age,  ii. 
132  sq. ;  death,  ii.  139;  Mr.  Mozley's 
reminiscences,  i.  44  sqq.,  549  sqq. 

Characteristics  {cf.  ii.  426  sqq.) : 
artistic  faculty,  i.  53,  198 ;  as- 
ceticism, i.  77,  106 ;  causation, 
behef  in,  i.  89,  550,  ii.  5,  431  ; 
dignity,  i.  43  ;  extravagance,  cf.  i. 
52 ;  expostulatory  habit,  i.  51  ; 
firmness,  i.  52  ;  humility  of  mind, 
cf.  i.  312;  ideaUty,  i.  54,  511; 
imagination,  constructive,  ii.  436 ; 
mdecision,  i.  240,  297,  ii.  34  ;  inde- 
pendence of  judgment,  i.  90 ; 
intellectuality,  i.  53  ;  inventiveness, 
i.  53  ;  irritability,  i.  54  sq.,  66,  cf.  ii. 
90  ;  pohtical  opinions,  i.  47  ; 
punctuahty,  i.  51  ;  religious  behef s, 
i.  45,  47,  63,  552,  cf.  556  ;  sensitive- 
ness, i.  79  ;  sympathy,  i.  51,  ii.  437  ; 
unconventionaUty,  i.  47,  52.  Cf.  also 
i.  358,  ii.  162. 

Writings :  Inventional  Geometry, 
i.  48,  53  ;  Legible  [re-named  Lucid] 
Shortfuind,  i.  2U  sq.,  240  sq.,  296  sq. 

Spencer,  Mrs.  W.  G.  (nee  Harriet 
Holmes),  S.'s  mother:  mother 
opposes  marriage,   i.    16,   56 ;    hus- 


band's behaviour,  i.  54  sqq.  ;  charac- 
teristics, i.  54  sqq.,  ii.  93,  280,  427, 
430 ;  little  interested  in  S.'s  works, 
i.  59 ;  letter  on  S.'s  flight  from 
Hinton,  i.  98  ;  invalid  life  and  old 
age,  ii.  93,  138,  140,  147  ;  death,  ii. 
149  ;  S.  regrets  insufficient  apprecia- 
tion, ii.  149,  cf.  i.  60. 

Spontaneous  generation,  Huxley's  B.  A. 
address,  ii.  219. 

Sport :  pleasures  of,  ii.  229  ;  good  for 
brain-workers,  ii.  305. 

Spottiswoode,  WiUiam  :  ninth  member 
of  X  Club,  ii.  115,  118;  S.'s  visit 
at  Coombe  Bank,  ii.  279. 

Spurzheim,  J.  C,  lectures  on  phrenology 
at  Derby,  i.  200. 

Standard,  views  on  American  Civil  War 
quoted,  ii.  499  sq. 

Standard  of  Freedom,  i.  329,  331. 

Standish  House,  Gloucestershire,  S.'s 
visits  to,  i.  427,  480,  ii.  61,  65,  92, 
379. 

Stanley,  Dean  A.  P. :  Metaphysical  Soc, 
ii.  210  ;  meeting  with,  ii.  355. 

Stanley,  Lord  (afterwards  Earl  of 
Derby)  :  influence  sought  by  S., 
ii.  39.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

State,  the  :  should  traffic  in  shares  be 
restricted,  i.  290.  ;  doctrines  of  Social 
Statics,  i.  362  sqq.  ;  "  Over-legisla- 
tion," i.  421  sqq.  ;  conception  of 
freedom  discussed,  i,  439  sqq.  ; 
representation  and  responsibihty,  ii. 
55  sq.  ;  attitude  of  political  parties, 
ii.  125  ;  S.'s  earlier  and  later  opinions 
compared,  ii.  365  sqq.  ;  bureau- 
cratic tendency,  ii.  368 ;  question 
of  functions  pre-eminently  practical, 
ii.  373  sq.  ;  S.'s  opposition  to 
education  by,  ii.  440 ;  monarchy 
versus  democracy,  ii.  464  sqq. 

"  State-Education  self-defeating,"  i, 
368. 

"  State  Tamperings  with  Money  and 
Banks,"  ii.  4  sq. 

Stephen,  [Sir]  LesUe,  meeting  with,  ii. 
228. 

Stephenson,  Robert,  i.  105,  125,  130  sq. 

Stourbridge,  i.  5  sqq.,  148. 

Strauss,  David  F.,  Life  of  Jesus,  i. 
265  sq. 

Struggle  for  existence,  doctrine  enun- 
ciated in  "  Theory  of  Population," 
i.  389  sq. 


INDEX. 


539 


Stuart-Glennie,  J.  S.,  Egypt  as  the 
"  Morning  Land,"  ii.  341. 

Study  of  Sociology  :  ii.  242  sqq.,  358  aq.  ; 
style,  ii.  36 ;  pecuniary  success,  ii. 
254  sq.  {cf.  246). 

Sturge,  Edmund,  i.  257. 

Sturge,  Joseph :  i.  218,  244  ;  founds  the 
PUot  newspaper,  i.  247  aq.  ;  S.'s  visit 
to,  i.  251,  259. 

Style  :  S.'s  first  thoughts  on,  i.  160 ; 
futility  of  studying,  ib.  (cf.  314,  315, 
354) ;  not  so  important  as  ideas,  i. 
223  ;  "  Philosophy  of  Style,"  i.  354, 
404  sqq.,  ii.  9 ;  effect  of  dictation,  ii. 
35,  200  ;  defects  recognized  by  S., 
ii.  451, 

Success  :  often  accompanies  mediocrity, 
i.  177,  cf.  300 ;  illusory  pleasures, 
ii.  457. 

Sun  (extinct'  newspaper),  i.  219,  ii. 
499  sq. 

Sun  newspaper  (New  York),  ii.  364. 

Survival  of  the  fittest :  enunciated  in 
Social  Statics,  i.  363,  ii.  7  ;  beneficial 
social  operation,  ii.  5,  cf.  50 ; 
natural  selection  equivalent  to,  ii. 
100. 

Sutton,  Mr.,  S.'s  secretary,  ii.  355. 

Swan  wick,  iliss  Anna,  meeting  with, 
i.  347. 

Switzerland :  S.'s  impressions  of,  i. 
428  sqq.  ;  home  sickness,  i.  509 ; 
atmospheric  conditions,  ii.  237. 

Sylvester,  Prof.  J.  J.,  a  supporter  of 
S.,  ii.  258. 

Sympathy :  moral  and  intellectual 
factors,  i.  33  ;  experience  requisite, 
i.  35  ;  in  sport,  i.  80 ;  check  on 
coercion,  i.  122  ;  factor  in  justice, 
i.  228  ;  specialities,  i.  480. 

Synthetic  Philosophy,  A  System  of: 
first  germs,  i.  212,  388,  500;  Mozley's 
erroneous  account  of  its  origin,  i. 
549  sq.  ;  stages  of  thought  leading 
up  to,  ii.  5  sqq.  ;  first  outline  of 
system,  ii.  14  sqq.,  19,  167  ;  financial 
difficulties  in  launching,  ii.  31  sq., 
39,  455 ;  programme  as  published, 
ii.  51  sq.,  479  sqq.  (list  of  sub, 
scribers,  ii.  484) ;  estimated  pro- 
ceeds, ii.  53  ;  American  support  - 
ib.  ;  undertaking  begun,  ii.  01  ; 
subscribers'  default,  ii.  64  sq., 
132 ;  First  Principles  completed, 
ii.  74  ;  first  vol.  of  Biology,  ii.  102  sq.; 


Biology,  Vol.  II,  ii.  113,  129  sqq.  ; 
subscriptions  fall  off,  ii.  132 ; 
cessation  announced,  ii.  133  ;  Mill's 
generous  proposal,  ii.  133,  507,  510  ; 
friends  appeal  for  subscriptions,  ii. 
136  sq.,  491  sq.  ;  First  Principlea 
re-cast  (cf.  ii.  112),  ii.  154  aq.,  163, 
165  sqq.  ;  choice  of  title,  ii.  157  ; 
Psychology,  ii.  220,  240 ;  growth  of 
sociological  ideas,  ii.  273  sqq.  ; 
"  Domestic  Institutions  "  added  to 
the  programme,  ii.  289  ;  serial  issue 
abandoned,  ii.  299 ;  a  change  of 
order  in  the  Sociology,  ii.  302 ; 
Pr.  of  Sociology,  ii.  303,  312 ;  Data 
of  Ethics  issued,  ii.  324 ;  official 
recognition  of  work  in  France,  ii. 
326  ;  an  addition  to  the  Psychology, 
ii.  363  ;  Political  Institutions,  ii.  373, 
378;  culminating  chapter  of  series, 
ii.  371;  prospects  of  completion, 
ii.  414  (cf.  381);  motives  operative 
in  elaborating,  ii.  449  sq.  ;  influence 
of  preceding  systems,  ii.  487  sqq. 

TaiVs  Magazine,  i.  225,  404. 

Taylor,  name  of  S.'s  ancestors,  i.  3,  11, 
19. 

Teacher,  high  order  of  functions,  i. 
119  sqq.  (see  Education). 

Tedder,  Henry  R.,  verifies  S.'s  quota- 
tions, &c.,  ii.  299. 

Telephone,  EngUsh  backwardness  in 
adopting,  ii.  394. 

Temperance,  Rev.  T.  Spencer's  propa- 
ganda, i.  29,  113. 

Temps,  Le,  ii.  311. 

Tennyson,  Alfred  Lord  :  (Enone,  i. 
262,  ii.  118;  promoter  of  Meta- 
physical Society,  ii.  209. 

Thackeray,  W.  M.  :  Pendennis,  i.  350  ; 
meeting  with,  ii.  91  (cf.  i.  459). 

Thackeray,  Miss,  meetings  with,  ii.  228, 
279  (see  also  Ritchie). 

Theatres,  S.'s  father's  objection  to,  i. 
106. 

"  Theory  of  Population,"  i.  369, 388  sqq., 
402,  416,  500,  ii.  8,  130  (cf.  i.  372, 
384). 

ThiebUn,  Nicholas,  Russian  translator, 
his  prosecution,  ii.  157. 

Thought :  S.'s  method  of,  i.  399,  ii. 
199 ;  concentration  tends  to  per- 
version, i.  401. 

Times,  The :    Rev.  T.  Mozley's     con- 


540 


INDEX. 


nexion  Math,  i.  26 ;  policy  not  to 
admit  an  error,  i.  329  n.  ;  review  of 
Henry  George's  book,  ii.  460  ; 
views  on  American  Civil  War 
quoted,  ii.  498  aq. 

Tintem  Abbey,  ii.  217. 

"  Transcendental  Physiology,"  i.  503  sq. 

Travis,  Dr.,  ii.  484. 

Trelawney,  Sir  John,  meeting  with, 
ii.  19,  40.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

Treport,  i.  455,  472,  ii.  61. 

Trevanion,  Mrs.  (nee  Burdett),  S.'s  visit 
to,  i.  433  sq. 

Tribune  (New  York),  ii.  211  sq.,  267, 
384,  497,  509  sqq. 

Tring,  i.  129. 

Trussed  beams,  S.'s  article  and  ex- 
periments on,  i.  161,  164. 

Trustees,  note  to  Autobiography,  i. 
v-vi. 

Tulloch,  Dr.  John,  Principal  of 
St.  Andrew's,  S.'s  letter  declining 
Rectorship,  ii.  232  sq. 

Turner,  F.  C.,  on  W.  G.  Spencer's 
Inventional  Geometry,  i.  48. 

Tinner,  J.  M.  W.,  R.A.,  criticism  of, 
i.  233  sqq.  \ 

Tyndall,  Prof.  John :  friendship  ioiti- 
ated,   i.   418 ;    passion  for  Natiu-e, 
i.    419 ;     conception   of   science,    i. 
420 ;    gives  S.  a  testimonial,  ii.  39  ;  ! 
co-editor    of    Reader,    ii.     118    sq.  ;  | 
assists  S.  in  his  difficulties,  ii.  136  sq.,  \ 
491  sq. ;  tours  and  meetings  with  S.,  ; 
ii.   220,   231,  244,  355 ;   cooperates 
in  starting  Int.  Scientific  Series,   ii. 
230 ;    supports  S.  in  controversy,  ii. 
258  ;   British  Association  address,  ii. 
282  sq.     Cf.  ii.  484. 

Typography  :  S.'s  scheme  for  rational- 
izing letters,  i.  215 ;  typemaking 
machine,  i.  244  sq.,  319 ;  curious 
blunders,  i.  460,  ii.  63,  359. 

"  Ultimate  Laws  of  Physiology,"  see 
"  Transcendental  Physiology." 

Umberslade  Hydropathic  establish- 
ment, i.  413,  449,  452. 

United  States,  see  America. 

"  Universal  Postulate,"  i.  392,  416  sq., 
400,  471,  ii.  10,  224,  240,  433. 

Vniverscd  Review,  ii.  43. 

Universities  :  S.  declines  hon.  degrees, 
ii.  233  sq.  ;  sample  of  education,  ii. 
263.  I 


University  College,  London :  S.  de- 
clines professorship,  ii.  146  sq.  ;  his 
books  ignored,  ii.  208. 

Upworth,  Wesley's  Home,  T.  7. 

UtiUtarianism :  Carlyle's  contempt, 
i.  381  ;  S.'s  attitude  defined,  ii.  88  sq. 

Valentines,  i.  57. 

Van    der    Heist,    picture    of    Burgo- 
master's Feast,  ii.  379. 
Vaughan,   Dr.    R.,  The  Age   of  Qreat 

Cities,  i.  52. 
Vegetarianism,    its   effects   on    S.,    i. 

349  sq. 
Velocimeter,  instrument  devised  by  S., 

i.  165,  180,  522  sqq. 
Venables,  G.  S.,  meeting  with,  ii.  91. 
Veneration,  evils  of  great,  i.  203. 
Venice,  S.'s  impressions  of,  ii.  343  sqq. 
Vestiges    of    the    Natural    History    of 

Creation,  i.  269,  348. 
Vesuvius,  visit  to,  ii.  181  sqq. 
Vetter,  Dr.  B.,  German  translator,  ii. 

235. 
Vico,  G.  B.,  ii.  485. 
Vignolles,  C.  B.,  C.E.,  i.  299. 
Vincent,  Henry  (Chartist),  i.  218. 
Virtue,  doctrine  of  rewards  criticized, 

i.  324,  ii.  380  sq. 


Wagner,   Richard :    music    criticized, 

i.  344,  ii.  297  sqq. 
Waldemar,  Prince,  i.  317. 
Wallace,  Alfred  Russel,  ii.  27,  50,  143. 
Walshe,  Dr.  W.  H.,  ii.  484. 
Waltham  Watch  Company,  ii.  142. 
Walton  and  Maberly,  publishers,  i.  461, 

462. 
War,  S.'s  views  in  letters  to  the  Non- 
conformist, i.  209  sq. 
Ward,  invalid  chair-maker,  ii.  494. 
Ward,  F.  O.  (of  The  Times),  meetings 

with,  i.  407,  468. 
Watches,    S.'s    improved    escapement 

for,  i.  243,  cf.  ii.  435. 
Watford,  Herts,  i.  105,  125,  130. 
Waves,    observations    concerning,    ii. 

282,  286. 
Wealth,  results  of  pursuit,  ii.  30. 
Webb,     Mrs.     Sidney,      see     Potter, 

Beatrice. 
Wemblv,  near  Harrow,  i.  133  sqq. 
Weolock,  Lady,  meeting  with,  ii.  372. 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Magazine :  accoimt 


INDEX. 


641 


of  Jeremiah  Brettell  in,  i.  8  ;  ticcount 
of  Catherine  Spencer,  i.  21. 
Wesleyanism  :  S.'s  ancestors  adherents, 
i.  7,  11,  15,  19  aqq.,  82  ;  self-restraint, 
i.  12,  20  ;  secessions  and  divergence, 
i.  25,  40,  83  ;  asceticism  inculcated, 
i.  28,  59. 
Westboume  Grove  in  1850,  i.  349. 
Westminster  Review :  on  Strauss's 
Life  of  Jesus,  i.  266 ;  Humboldt's 
Kosmos,  i.  295 ;  its  vicissitudes,  i. 
371  sq.  ;  bought  by  Chapman,  i. 
372 ;  S.'s  contributions,  i.  384,  388, 
402,  404,  416,  421,  434,  442,  499,  510, 
ii.  4,  8,  21,  34,  54;  Chapman's 
attack  on  booksellers,  i.  392  ;  Mill's 
connexion,  i.  421  ;  an  organ  of 
genuine  Liberalism,  i.  421. 

Wetherall,  F.  H.  P.,  i.  155. 

"  What  knowledge  is  of  most  worth  ?  " 
ii.  34. 

Whit«  hat,  symbol  of  radicalism,  i.  23. 

Whittington  Club,  S.'s  membership,  i. 
342. 

Whitty,  Capt.,  i.  155. 

Will,  the,  Goethe's  doctrine  criticized, 
i.  279  sq. 

Willesden  in  1838,  i.  137. 

WilUams  and  Norgate,  Messrs.,  S.'s 
publishers,  ii.  70,  135,  136,  221, 
491. 

Wilmot,  Sir  Robert,  of  Chaddesden 
Hall,  Derby,  i.  50,  65. 

Wilson,  Rev.  Dr.  James,  editor  of  The 
Pilot,  i.  247  sq.,  251  sqq. 

Wilson,  James,  M.P.,  editor  of  the 
Economist,  i.  329  sq.,  334,  341. 

Wirksworth,  Derbyshire,  name  of 
Spencer  prevalent,  i.  9. 

W^olverton  Station,  i.  134. 

Women  :  equal  freedom  claimed  for, 
in  Social  Statics,  i.  361  ;  intuitive 
faculty,  ii.  86 ;  beliefs  fixed  early, 
ii.  94  ;  S.'s  popularity  with,  ii.  246  ; 
beauty  and  character,  ii.  419. 

Wonder  :  essay  on  organ  of,  i.  246  sq.  ; 
not  a  trait  of  low  intelligences,  i.  477. 

Woodfall,  Mr.  (Woodfall  and  Kinder), 
printer  :  S.'s  indebtedness  to,  i.  357, 
461. 

Worcester,  i.  91,  96,  139  sqq. 

Wordsworth,  Wilham,  quaUty  as  poet, 
i.  263. 

Work,  the  ethics  of,  i.  411  sqq.,  ii.  288, 
400,  404. 


World,  The  (London  newspaper)  t  story 
of  S.  and  Scotch  clergyman,  ii.  371. 

Wrinkles,  not  produced  by  spontaneous 
thought,  i.  399,  401. 

X  Club:  founded,  ii.  115;  purpose, 
ii.  116;  influence,  ib.,  371  ;  guests, 
ii.  117,  278;  picnics,  ii.  117  ;  gaps, 
ii.  118  ;  British  Association  meetings, 
ii.  219,  283  (c/.  116);  hundredth 
meeting,  ii.  288  ;  S.  benefits  by  good 
dinner,  ii.  296. 

YoTJMANS,  Prof.  Edward  Livingston : 
obtains  subscriptions  to  S.'s  phil- 
osophy in  U.S.,  ii.  53,  97  (c/.  155) ; 
high  character,  ii.  53  sq.  ;  visits  to 
S.,  ii.  83,  144,  286 ;  dinner  to  him, 
ii.  123  ;  raises  fund  to  recoup  S.  for 
losses,  ii.  141  sq.  ;  services  to 
English  authors,  ii.  227  ;  promotion 
of  Int.  Sci.  Series,  ii.  230  sqq.  ;  S.'s 
amanuensis,  ii.  232 ;  urges  S.  to 
write  Study  of  Sociology,  ii.  242 ; 
starts  Popular  Science  Monthly,  ii. 
244  sq.  ;  interested  in  Descriptive 
Sociology,  ii.  264  sqq.  ;  breakdown 
from  overwork,  ii.  287  ;  welcomes 
S.  to  U.S.,  ii.  388;  interviews  S., 
it.  403  ;  letter  to  Tribune  correcting 
impressions  concerning  S.'s  position, 
ii.  509  sqq. 

Letters  to  {cf.  ii.  158) :  scheme  for 
publishing  S.'s  works  in  U.S.A.,  ii. 
97  sq.,  118  (cf.  155  sq.) ;  the  Reader, 
ii.  118,  120;  impending  cessation  of 
philosophy,  ii.  133,  136 ;  death  of 
S.'s  father,  ii.  138 ;  professorships 
declined,  ii.  146  sq.  ;  invalid-bed, 
ii.  147  sq.  ;  an  evening  with  Mill 
and  Grote,  ii.  155  ;  morphia-dreams, 
ii.  174^5'.  ;  proposed  visit  to  America, 
ii.  198 ;  English  and  American  sales 
compared,  ii.  207  ;  Synthetic  Phil- 
osophy at  Oxford,  ii.  208  ;  English 
feeling  on  Civil  War,  ii.  210  sqq. 
(cf.  497  sqq. ) ;  secretary  wanted,  ii. 
215 ;  Ray  Lankestcr's  essay  on 
"  Longevity,"  ii.  216 ;  a  caution 
against  overwork,  ib.  ;  essay  on 
"  Animal  Worship,"  ib. ;  Gazelles'  in- 
troduction to  First  Principles,  ii.  226  ; 
business  arrangements  with  Apple- 
tons,  ii.  227  ;  Study  of  Sociology,  ii. 
243  sq.,  246, 254  ;  theological  hberali- 


542 


INDEX. 


zation,  ii.  246 ;  Gladstone  con- 
troversy, ii.  254  ;  a  little  dinner,  ii. 
258  ;  Descriptive  Sociology,  ii.  262, 
264,  267  sqq.,  348  sqq.  ;  Bryant's 
generosity,  ii.  268  sq.  ;  business 
distractions,  ii.  283 ;  thanks  for 
untiring  advocacy,  ib.  ;  invitation 
to  Queen's  Gardens,  ii.  284  ;  work- 
drunkenness,  ii.  288  ;  Russifin  trans- 
lations, ib.,  308  ;  metaphysical  con- 
troversy with  a  bishop,  ii.  294 ; 
Ceremonial  Institutions,  ii.  303 ; 
amenities  and  evils  of  London  life, 
ii.  309,  320 ;  revision  of  Sociology, 
ii.  310 ;  Paulhan's  review  of  "  Pro- 
gress, &c.,"  ib.  ;  Data  of  Ethics,  ii. 
314  sq.  ;  wintering  abroad,  ii.  318, 
320 ;     ofi&cial    recognition    of    S.'s 


works  in  France,  ii.  326,  347,  370 ; 
John  Evans's  pun  on  Allman,  ii.  329  ; 
Mrs.  Lewes  and  the  Ethics,  ib.  ; 
agitation  against  militancy,  ib.  sq.  ; 
an  immense  joke  at  Cairo,  ii.  335  ; 
Political  Institutions,  ii.  352 ;  result 
of  Egyptian  tour — beer  drinking,  ii. 
356  ;  Greek  translation  of  Education, 
ib.  ;  critics  and  the  Psychology,  ii. 
362 ;  political  theory  in  U.S.,  ii. 
370  ;  Scotch  clergyman's  exorcism, 
ii.  371 ;  Hegeler's  generosity,  ii.  372  ; 
arrangements  for  visiting  U.S.,  ii. 
383  sqq.  ;  American  kindness,  ii. 
408  ;  voj'age  home,  ib. 

Zoist,    The,    phrenological    magazine, 
S.'s  contributions  to,  i.  227,  246  sq. 


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